SEATTLE—"Badly decomposed" human remains were found yesterday at the home of former radio talk show host Mike Webb.

Webb, 52, was last seen April 13, according to a missing-person report filed in May. His 10-year stint as a late-night talk show host came to an end in December 2005 when he was fired by KIRO-AM after being charged with insurance fraud.

Seattle police crime scene investigators and homicide detectives were combing the house Webb had rented for 14 years in the 2500 block of Third Avenue West.

Assistant Chief Nick Metz, head of the department's investigations division, said a property manager discovered the body Thursday afternoon.

Calling the remains "badly decomposed," Metz said investigators had yet to determine the gender, age or the cause of death.

"We are treating this death as suspicious," Metz said.

Investigators were trying to determine whether the body had been moved to the house, Metz said. Several people — including missing-person investigators and Webb's family — had been to the house in the months since the liberal radio host vanished.

Officers last examined the home within the past two weeks, police spokesman Jeff Kappel said. It was unclear whether officers entered the home at that time.

Metz declined to divulge details about where the body was found. But he did say that, when those details are publicized, the reasons why the body was not located earlier will be clear.

Police blocked access to the modest, two-story house Thursday in an effort to preserve the scene.

During a visit to the house earlier in June, Webb's home appeared to have long been abandoned.

An eviction warning was fixed to the front door, advising that June's rent had not been paid.

Inside, books and other items lay undisturbed. The basement window was shrouded yesterday by a white tent often used by investigators to shield a crime scene from the public.

According to the missing-person report, Webb's family was concerned for his safety because he had recently been spending time with a "shady character" who had previously taken a car from Webb.

In the days following his disappearance, Webb's family members received several text messages from Webb's cell phone but did not speak with him, according to police documents.

Webb's insurance fraud conviction stemmed from a 2005 car wreck in which Webb's Lexus was hit by an uninsured driver. King County prosecutors argued Webb bought a comprehensive insurance plan the day after the crash and filed a claim for the damage.

Webb's first trial was thrown out after jurors saw him apparently experiencing a nervous breakdown outside the Seattle courthouse. He later spent 30 days at a mental health facility.

Webb's mental health came into question while on trial for insurance fraud earlier this year.

In sentencing Webb after a second, abbreviated trial, Judge Julie Spector ordered that he continue treatment for an unspecified psychiatric condition.

The missing-person report also notes that Webb was in a doctor's care.

In an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer after his conviction, Webb denied any wrongdoing and claimed he'd been set up in an elaborate right-wing conspiracy.

"It may sound like the rants of some wacko," he said in February. But "what I believe happened is that there was a hacker who has been regularly hacking me."

Metz said the body would likely be transferred to the King County Medical Examiner's Office for analysis.