Kelly Verceles’ life went into a downward spiral in the past year after his best friend was arrested on decades-old racketeering, conspiracy and attempted murder charges.

Owyhee County sheriff’s deputies found Verceles’ body Wednesday in Enrico Ponzo’s home.

Officials in the rural Idaho county said Thursday it appears Verceles’ death was a suicide. The official cause of death won’t be determined until toxicology test results are in, said Owyhee County Coroner Harvey Grimme.

But Grimme did say that Verceles died from a single gunshot wound to the head, and a .22-caliber rifle was found nearby. A suicide note was not.

Idaho court records paint a picture of a man in decline.

Verceles, 40, faced felony criminal conspiracy, burglary and grand theft charges after FBI and Owyhee County sheriff’s officials said he and two other local men took more than $150,000 in cash and gold from Ponzo’s hidden safe in February — after Ponzo was arrested and taken back to New England.

Most of that money was recovered but there is at least $10,000 still unaccounted for and prosecutors say Verceles knew where it was.

Verceles, who was arrested in April, was set to change his plea in the case on Feb. 10.

Verceles was going to plead guilty to felony counts of grand theft and tampering with evidence, Owyhee County Prosecutor Doug Emory said.

There was no deal on sentence, which means there was no guarantee Verceles wouldn’t have done some prison time. The crime of grand theft is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Having Verceles’ cooperation in locating the missing money would have been a major factor in sentencing, Emory said.

Verceles told authorities last spring he didn’t get Ponzo’s permission to dig up the cash and gold stashed below Ponzo’s Marsing home, even though Verceles called the man he knew by the alias Jay Shaw a “brother.”

Verceles had been living in Ponzo’s Hogg Road home since Ponzo was arrested by FBI agents in February.

Court records indicate Verceles recently missed a court date in Boise County on a drunken driving charge stemming from an incident in July.

Verceles’ wife divorced him in 2010, took his young daughter and moved back to California, said Janie Nielsen, who runs the White House Drive-in and Motel on Marsing’s main drag.

Verceles stopped by most mornings for coffee on his way to work, Nielsen said.

“He seemed like he was upbeat and everything was OK,” Nielsen said. “He didn’t seem depressed or anything.”

But Nielsen hadn’t seen Verceles since about Christmas, when he brought in his 10-year-old daughter. She was visiting during her school break, and the two had gone to Nevada to visit family, Nielsen said.

Over their steaming cups of coffee at the White House, Marsing residents shook their heads at the havoc caused by Ponzo’s decision more than a decade ago to come to their small town to hide out, Nielsen said.

“Just from meeting this one person and his family, all of this came because of that,” Nielsen said. “And things had sort of died down until (Verceles’ death Wednesday).”

Owyhee County officials said their investigation into Verceles’ death will continue. Grimme said the FBI also has been in Ponzo’s home looking into Verceles’ death.

Ponzo, arrested nearly one year ago in connection with his alleged role in a factional war of New England’s Cosa Nostra, now awaits a jury trial in Boston.

When they searched Ponzo's home last February, federal investigators found 38 guns — including handguns, shotguns, several assault rifles and a fully automatic rifle — plus 44 cases of ammunition with more than 10,000 rounds and about $15,000 in cash.

Following Ponzo’s arrest, Verceles said that Ponzo had asked him to watch his house and cattle. Verceles moved into Ponzo’s home.

Investigators say that Verceles and two others used a blowtorch and a jackhammer to get to a safe with far more money — at least $102,000 in cash and $60,000 worth of gold coins.

Investigators found out about the safe — which had been set in concrete — only after they’d returned to Ponzo’s home on an unrelated search and found the basement floor destroyed.

It wasn't long after Verceles found the money that law enforcement found out, Emory said.

Verceles "told 16 people about what he found under there ... that stuff doesn't stay quiet," Emory said.

Kathleen Kreller: 377-6418