Published: April 30, 2009 01:36 pm      

10 am: Body at Frankfort home ID'd

FRANKFORT — Police launched a homicide investigation after finding a body in a Frankfort home.

Police discovered a woman’s body in the back bedroom of a mobile home on Elm Street at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Benzie County Undersheriff Bill Sholten said.

Frankfort police officers and Benzie deputies went to the home after family of the woman called police. They were concerned because they hadn’t heard from her in a while, Sholten said. She was identified by police as Valerie M. Smith.

Police found the body and called in the Michigan State Police crime lab.

“It was immediately evident that there had been foul play,” Sholten said.

Sholten declined to provide further details and deferred comment to Frankfort Chief Keith Redder, who couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday morning.

Sholten said investigators believe the case is connected to a felonious assault Monday in Manistee County, though he wouldn’t provide details.

Robert Lester Cheek, 54, of Frankfort, was arraigned Wednesday on felony counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm and assault with a dangerous weapon. He remains in jail.

The victim in that incident allegedly was assaulted in his home outside Bear Lake in Manistee County’s Pleasanton Township on Monday evening, police said.