Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
As the Ron Ford murder investigation broadens in Pennsylvania, local authorities wait to hear from anyone who saw the car he was found in.
By KELLEY BENHAM, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 8, 2002
TARPON SPRINGS -- A strange and still-unsolved shooting has detectives searching as far away as Pennsylvania for clues, but police hope some of the answers stem from a flashy silver Honda that became a crime scene.
"It's an intricate investigation involving a multitude of jurisdictions," police Detective Robert Faugno said, speaking about the case for the first time. "It's slow going."
The Honda, with its pounding subwoofers and unmistakable upgrades, called attention to the killing of Ron Ford Jr. in October when it came to rest in a front yard in a quiet neighborhood on Bayshore Drive. A passer-by drawn by the music found Ford slumped in the driver's seat, bleeding from a bullet hole in his side.
Now detectives hope witnesses who saw the car that day will come forward and help them solve the crime. They also are looking into the lives of Ford and the friend who brought him here from Pennsylvania, working with police departments and the district attorney in a cluster of small towns northwest of Pittsburgh.
In Tarpon Springs, police are searching for a man seen inside the car with Ford the day he died, Faugno said Friday.
A delivery person saw the two in the car, Faugno said, and now police are trying to identify the passenger and pinpoint the time.
Other witnesses saw Ford sunbathing alone beside the Honda at Fred H. Howard Park that morning.
And one witness saw Ford on Bayshore Drive sometime before he died, Faugno said.
But police are still trying to construct the chronology, having determined that Ford had a conflict with someone between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. near Howard Park.
They found evidence at a location away from the spot where Ford died, Faugno said, and are waiting for lab results on that evidence. Toxicology results from Ford's autopsy have not come back, he said.
Ford, 25, didn't know anyone in Florida other than the man who brought him here and anyone he might have met in the days before his death.
Ford came to Florida with a friend named Eric Dickson and Dickson's girlfriend, Christina Salopek.
Dickson, 18, has said he is a suspect, but police don't confirm that.
"No one has been implicated," Faugno said. "And no one has been excluded."
Dickson said he has taken a lie detector test, allowed his house to be searched, answered detectives' questions and submitted cheek cells for DNA testing. His lawyer won't let him talk about the day Ford died, but Dickson said he did not kill Ford and doesn't know who did.
"Ron ain't the kind of person that should have died," Dickson said recently. "They think I know something, and I don't."
Ford grew up in Moon Township in Pennsylvania and lived most recently in Aliquippa. Dickson grew up in nearby Crescent Township.
In late October, Dickson headed to Florida to house sit for his father, who owns a home in Tarpon Springs, and to attend court proceedings on drug charges in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
Dickson and Salopek invited several friends to join them, they said, but only Ford accepted.
After the 18-hour drive south, they visited Clearwater Beach and walked on the pier. They hung out with one of Dickson's friends in Clearwater, rode Harley Davidson motorcycles and listened to music, Dickson said.
On Oct. 22, Ford went to the beach. He had told his girlfriend in Pennsylvania he would find some shells for her. That afternoon, just after 2 p.m., a construction worker found him dead in the car at 623 Bayshore Dr., wearing just a pair of gray shorts.
Faugno didn't say whether police had established a motive, but they are searching for possibilities in Dickson and Ford's network of friends in Pennsylvania.
"We are looking into the background of the victim," Faugno said, "and we are looking into the background of Eric Dickson."
They are also investigating a conflict between Dickson and another person in Pennsylvania, he said.
Dickson said he had a minor argument with Ford a couple of weeks before the trip -- a few angry words about a lengthy cell phone call.
Dickson said he also called police in Pennsylvania after Ford took Salopek to a motel because she had no place to stay, he said. He was angry, he said, because he thought Salopek was there with someone else. If he'd known it was Ford, he would not have been upset, he said.
Recently, Dickson and Ford went to Michigan together and bought Dickson's silver and black Honda Civic CRX with the Acura engine and the Alpine sound system, the throbbing subwoofers and the ebony rims. It had $20,000 in upgrades, Dickson said.
"It was a fast and furious car," Dickson said.
Now, police hope the car is distinctive enough that anyone who saw it that day will remember it.
In a city that has one or two murders a year, this one has been especially puzzling, police have said.
"It's one of the most difficult homicide investigations I've ever worked on," Faugno said. "We need help."
Kelley Benham can be reached at (727) 445-4182.
Tarpon Springs police want to hear from anyone who saw Ron Ford Jr. or the car he was driving on Oct. 22, particularly between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The car is a silver 1990 Honda CRX hatchback with a black hood and Michigan tag number XT3000. The car has black alloy rims, a spoiler, Euro-style taillights and large lettering across the hood that reads "driver side." Witnesses can call Detective Robert Faugno at (727) 938-2849.