BEND, OR -- The 22-year-old Redmond man accused of killing a woman on her property outside Sisters had his first court appearance Monday afternoon. Tina Klein-Lewis' body was discovered May 31 on Cloverdale Road. "She was found by her boyfriend and he found her in the bucket of a tractor that she owned on her property," Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel tells KBND News. 

Hummel says investigators still don’t know how the suspect - Alexander Smith - knew the 55-year-old victim, "Nothing to indicate that he worked on the property, that he was a family friend, that he was a relative; just nothing. We’re at a loss as to how they even encountered one another. There’s no evidence that they had a previous relationship."

Smith was arrested Friday, after he asked a man on Jordan Road to call medics because his feet were infected. Hummel says deputies responded to the "welfare check" call and discovered evidence linking Smith to the murder nearly four miles away. They took him into custody based on that evidence and statements he made to deputies. "We think he was sleeping on the property where the police encountered him or another property - these are large tracts of land out there," says Hummel, "Smith had recently been estranged from his parents. They had told him he was no longer welcome at their home, so it seems like he was struggling with life."

Hummel would not comment on how Klein-Lewis was killed, citing the ongoing investigation, but says, "This is a very forensic-heavy case. The autopsy that was conducted early on was a key part of this case."

Smith was a 2018 graduate of Redmond High and had been attending classes at OSU.

He now has a court-appointed attorney and was arraigned on several charges, including Second Degree Murder, Trespass and Burglary. Hummel says he's presenting the case to the Grand Jury. Smith is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment June 13th.