SEATTLE -- The death of Seattle talk show host Mike Webb was a homicide, the King County medical examiner's office said on Friday. The cause of death was listed as "multiple sharp force injuries."

The body was found Thursday by workers cleaning out Webb's Queen Anne rental home. It was in the crawl space, covered by boxes and a tarp.

Earlier on Friday, Webb's brother, Wayne Webb told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Graham Johnson that medical examiners said Webb died of blunt trauma and multiple stab wounds.

Mike Webb disappeared in April after he lost his job with KIRO radio because he was accused of insurance fraud.

David Neth, Webb's longtime property manager, sent a statement to KIRO 7 earlier on Friday describing the discovery of the body.

Neth said he hired a day laborer to clean out the abandoned house. After he moved boxes from a crawlspace, the worker saw the outline of a body under a tarp in the 3-foot crawlspace, and immediately called police.

"I am pretty certain the body will be determined to be Mike's," said Neth, before the body was identified and the case was ruled a homicide. "I find 'suicide' to be a pretty hard sell unless it was an assisted suicide and he had a person 'helping him' who didn't really like him," his statement said.

"One does not cover oneself in a neatly squared-out tarp and pile boxes on oneself, all after covering the opening to the crawl space with a loose piece of plywood," he said in the statement.

Seattle police searched Webb's home within the last few weeks but found nothing.

"Even though we were here in the past, that doesn't necessarily mean the body was even here at that time. So again we're going to have to continue to follow up on that," Assistant Chief Nick Metz with the Seattle Police Department said.

"There is something very dark about all of this. Don't know how it is all going to shake down, but I don't have a good feeling about it and I haven't had a good feeling about it for months," Internet blogger Mike Hood, a one-time nemesis of Webb, said on Thursday.

In early June, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News spoke with Webb's friend and former producer Jeremy Grater, who was deeply concerned about Webb's whereabouts.

"It's disturbing; we're all very concerned about him. I'm worried about him. It's not like him to disappear for this long and to just take off like that," Grater said.

Webb's rented Queen Anne house was posted with notice to pay rent or quit the premises, and it appeared Webb hasn't been there in months, leaving all his possessions and clothing behind, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Karen O'Leary reported on June 14.

"The timing is really weird; I mean, if this were about taking off, if this was about hiding somewhere, this would have happened a long time ago," Grater said.

Webb was convicted of insurance fraud and lost his job at KIRO radio a few years ago and was serving time doing community service until his disappearance.

"It's a real tragedy right from the top. I mean, he was a man pretty much at the top of his game, in the middle of his life, who in a very short period of time went all the way down to the bottom and we don’t know how far down he really is right now," Hood said.

According to the Seattle police missing persons report, Webb had been hanging out with a "shady character," and text messages were received from Webb’s phone for days after his disappearance.

"One day you think the worst, and the next day you think maybe it’s just a big misunderstanding and will have the best possible outcome," Grater said.

Mike Webb's Web site