A man was booked into Whatcom County Jail on investigation of homicide early Wednesday, July 18, more than a month after police found a body in his apartment.

Kevin Shawn O'Leary, 55, was booked into jail by the Lummi Nation Police Department at about 1:20 a.m.

On June 12, Lummi Nation Police arrived at an apartment in the 2900 block of Smokehouse Road after getting a report of an attempted suicide, according to Lummi Nation spokesman AJ Barse. Police found O'Leary with an apparent self-inflicted wound, and he was taken to St. Joseph hospital for treatment. During a search of the apartment officers discovered a dead body.

Barse didn't release the identity of the dead person. But O'Leary was listed in an obituary for Lummi tribal member Valerie Margaret Jefferson as her significant other. The obituary lists the date of her death as June 12. Whatcom County Medical Examiner Gary Goldfogel called the circumstances of Jefferson's death suspicious in an email a few weeks after she died. Goldfogel is not at his office this week.

Online records show that Jefferson and O'Leary likely lived together in the Smokehouse Road apartment at the time of her death, though no other details could be confirmed by law enforcement.

Charges against O'Leary are expected to be filed Thursday or Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. He was still in Whatcom County Jail Wednesday afternoon.

Reach SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL at samantha.wohlfeil@bellinghamherald.com or 360-715-2264.

Reach ZOE FRALEY at zoe.fraley@bellinghamherald.com or call 756-2803.