BUNKER HILL - Peaceful. Docile.  A child in a man's body.

That's Henry Cozad.

To his friends, it's impossible the teen could have committed murder.

"He doesn't have a violent bone in his body - he doesn't know how," said Elaine Slutter. "I know he couldn't do it. Linda was his mom."

Friends of the family for more than nine years, Slutter and her brother, David, said they watched Henry grow up under the care of Linda S. Foley, who was his father Fred Cozad Jr.'s girlfriend of about 14 years.

But law enforcement officers and the Coos County District Attorney believe Henry beat and killed Foley with his bare hands at the family's home in Bunker Hill last week. The DA charged the 18-year-old with murder after Foley died from internal bleeding brought on by severe blunt-force trauma to her head, neck, chest and abdomen.

A probable cause statement from the Coos County Sheriff's Office describes a trail of blood, blood on Henry's pants and more in his bedroom, as well as fresh abrasions on his right hand knuckles. The statement also details violent outbursts the teen had with family and one assault case that was dismissed.

Still the facts don't add up for Henry's supporters or his father Fred. They believe Foley probably tripped and fell into a welder in the house while reaching for the phone, or maybe over her own socks.

"I couldn't get her to wear a pair of shoes for nothing," Cozad said outside of his home on Tuesday.

She fell often, had high blood pressure and didn't take her medication, the 61-year-old retired mechanic said matter-of-factly.

Ray Stitt, a friend of Cozad's for about 20 years, agreed with these scenarios.

"It looked like her face hit the welder," Stitt said. "That's absolutely what it looks like."

Henry often plays with Stitt's 7- and 10-year-old daughters, Stitt noted.

"Henry is probably one of the most docile kids in his condition I've ever seen," Stitt said. "He plays with them just like any other kid would. There was never any issues."

Additional bruising found on Foley's body happened, Cozad explained, when he and a family friend tried to revive her with CPR and heard a bone pop. The blood on Henry's clothing, they say, likely came when Foley tried to lean against the teen to pick herself up. Henry, who has been diagnosed with severe mental health disabilities considered to be severe autism, is afraid of blood and probably stepped back, his father said, leaving the bloody streaks.

Elaine Slutter, who also has a child who was diagnosed with autism, said he too has a strong aversion to blood.

"It stands to reason because we already know what he's like around blood," Cozad said.

Stitt and Cozad contend there were no abrasions or blood on the teen's hands.

"They should have ... checked everything before jumping the gun like they always do," Cozad said of investigators.

He described the police work as shoddy, believes Foley was still alive before paramedics asked him to leave his home and then carted her away. He thinks they may have somehow contributed to the 59-year-old woman's death and is frustrated.

"I'm not happy about it, of course. They should have had respect for me because that's two out of my life," he said, referring to his son and girlfriend.

Regarding violence in Henry's past, Cozad said he isn't really sure what happened when an instructional aide was strangled while working with the teen last year. But, he contends, Henry had been assaulted on or near a school bus about a week before the incident.

Henry hadn't been to school, for adult transition training, for about a month before Thursday's arrest. Cozad said he was too sick and tired to take him to his bus stop up the short, steep road to the top of the hill. He added he had been spending time with his son to work with him on his speech. Henry can say only a few words, mainly consisting of names, friends said, and uses "gibberish sign language" to communicate what he wants. However, on the day of the arrest, Cozad said Henry clearly told him "no" when he asked if he hurt his mama. His friends said Henry didn't know how to lie.

Cozad is concerned that Henry, who is being held at the Coos County jail, feels abandoned with little notion or comprehension of what happened.

Before the arrest, the two hadn't been separated for more than three hours at a time, except when Henry was in school. Now, Cozad hasn't seen his son since police took him away.

"He's probably in shock or in pretty bad shape," he said.