Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Arson suspected in case of body found in SUV
Detectives think the vehicle was set afire to mask the circumstances of a man's death.
By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published September 27, 2005
SHADY HILLS - Investigators removed charred human remains from a burned Isuzu Trooper on Monday, a day after a construction worker discovered the vehicle and body on a work site at Hays Road and State Road 52.
The body in the driver's side of the 2004 Trooper was so badly scorched, Pasco County sheriff's officials awaited the medical examiner before determining that the victim was male.
An autopsy originally scheduled for Monday was delayed until today.
Sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said detectives are treating the death as suspicious and suspect arson. They are looking to the public for any information that might lead to an arrest.
Sheriff's detectives believe the vehicle was set ablaze in an effort to disguise the circumstances under which the victim died, Tobin said. The owner of the vehicle is being questioned, but Tobin would not disclose who the owner is.
Investigators worked all morning Monday processing the crime scene, a tract of scrubby land being cleared for a subdivision, about a mile north of State Road 52.
Tobin said a construction worker stopped by the site on Sunday afternoon to check on his equipment when he spotted the vehicle and called emergency officials. There was no information about how long the vehicle had been there or about how recently it had caught on fire.
RIPA & Associates is the construction firm working on the site, though no one there returned calls for this story on Monday.
The Trooper, now only a white-and-black skeleton of a car, was loaded on a tow truck Monday afternoon and draped in a blue tarp to protect it as evidence.
Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call the Sheriff's Office tip line at 1-800-706-2488.
"There will be some type of reward for information leading to arrest and conviction," Tobin said.
[Last modified September 27, 2005, 02:45:31]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
