Week in Review

DIGGING FOR REMAINS AT USF -- Dragging her shovel from the top to the bottom of the dirt pit behind the University of South Florida handball courts, Keely Fielding noted distinct changes Thursday in the earth's coloration. They represent the passing of 1,500 years.

Fifteen centuries ago, nomadic American Indians lived in the northern section of the USF campus, close to the Hillsborough River and Cypress Creek. Fielding was among a team of students who spent much of Thursday finishing an excavation there that uncovered evidence of an ancient, human campsite.

USF plans to build dormitories at the site in coming years, and state law mandates that it be searched first for archaeological significance. The students found handmade stone tool pieces Thursday. They found charcoal and pottery remnants.

While the tiny fragments appear insignificant, the story behind them can be very complex, Fielding said. If scientists discover a piece of pottery somewhere in North Florida, and then find a similar piece in Tampa, it provides insight into what may have been an ancient trade route.

SICKLES SENIOR KILLED BEFORE GRADUATION -- Sickles High School said goodbye to its senior class, minus Christopher Fannan, an 18-year-old who died the weekend before. Fannan was attacked shortly before 4 a.m. May 19 in the parking lot of a Steak n Shake restaurant near Citrus Park Town Center.

Fannan, described as an upbeat student who always made his classmates smile, had enlisted in the U.S. Army and was weeks away from joining up.

Hillsborough County sheriff's officials said about 3:45 a.m., four men in a dark green Honda Accord station wagon drove by the restaurant and yelled to the teens in the parking lot. Someone in the crowd yelled back and 10 minutes later, someone from the Honda hit Fannan in the head. Deputies performed CPR but the damage was so severe that by 2 p.m. Sunday, he was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital. Life support machines kept him alive long enough for vital organs to be donated.

Deputies were still looking for suspects late in the week, and taking tips at 247-8200 or toll free at 1-800-873-8477.

CAR CRASHES INTO CARROLLWOOD LANAI -- AGAIN -- Instead of an alarm clock, Iris DeCastro awoke as a 4-door Toyota crashing through her patio early Wednesday morning -- again. No one was seriously injured in the 6:30 a.m. accident, said sheriff's deputies.

It is the second one of its kind at the Cypress Bend home in a year.

Last May, a 19-year-old man drove his red 1994 Ford Probe through their backyard lanai, causing $31,000 in damage. "The car actually fell into the pool; there was gasoline and oil in the water. It took three months to get it cleaned up," said DeCastro.

This time, a white 1991 Toyota barrelled across the north and southbound lanes of traffic on Anderson Road -- plowing past the family's gate door, onto the screened patio and past the pool. The four-door sedan then bounced off the back side of the house, through the other screen wall and lurched to a stop in the back yard.

Sheriff's deputies estimate the crash caused about $5,500 in damage to the split level home on Shadybrook Drive. The car driven by 18-year-old Richard Campos sustained about $3,000 in damages.

"He'd been out all night with friends," said Deputy James Boyle with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. "He was not drinking . . . he fell asleep at the wheel."

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