 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
St. Petersburg man found dead in pondBy EDIE GROSS © St. Petersburg Times, published February 4, 2001 ST. PETERSBURG -- The black debris poking out of the pond at the Isla Del Sol golf course Saturday morning looked like a piece of plastic to Garry Mac Rae. So the golf course maintenance worker wheeled his cart closer to the water to see whether he could remove the garbage before golfers showed up. "Then I could see chrome around a back window," said Mac Rae, who called St. Petersburg police after his discovery just before 8 a.m. "That's when I saw it was a car." Inside the black Ford Thunderbird, police found Richard Radcliff Kerr, a 30-year-old St. Petersburg man who friends say was last seen at the Hurricane restaurant in Pass-a-Grille about 11 p.m. Friday. Kerr of 6731 14th Way S apparently drove his car into the golf course pond along the south side of the Pinellas Bayway sometime during the night, police said. No one reported hearing or seeing the crash until Mac Rae spotted the roof of the car near hole 3 in the Playa Escondida subdivision. Traffic investigators spent more than five hours in a cold drizzle Saturday morning trying to figure out why Kerr's car left the road. Kerr had some cuts and bruises on his head, but police said they would not know exactly how he died until after the medical examiner performs an autopsy. Officers found no skid marks along the road indicating that Kerr hit his brakes or swerved to avoid another car before the accident, said Traffic Homicide Investigator Joe Pratt. The only damage to the car appeared to be a broken headlight, probably damaged when the car struck a one-way road sign on the edge of the golf course, Pratt said. Kerr lived with his parents, Norma and Radcliff Kerr, in St. Petersburg. Mrs. Kerr said her son usually went out with friends on Friday night. She was surprised when he was not home by the time she woke up Saturday morning. "He never stays out until the morning, so I sort of wondered what happened. When it got a little bit late (in the day), I started to worry," said Mrs. Kerr, who learned about the accident from police shortly after noon. In a strange twist, it turned out that the tow truck driver at the accident scene knew Kerr through mutual friends. Kristopher Kindt, 24, said the two often saw each other on Friday nights when they went to the Hurricane to unwind. At first, no one realized anyone was in the car. Kindt said he asked firefighters to break a few of the Thunderbird's windows to let water out so he could tow the car from the pond. As water spilled out of the car, officers saw Kerr's body wedged between the front seats. Not wanting to disturb the body, police officers reached for a backpack in the car, which contained the ID of another man. That man, a friend of Kerr's and Kindt's, had been in the car with Kerr earlier Friday evening, police said. Kindt, the tow truck driver, paged the friend, who hurried to the scene with other friends. They told police that Kerr had joined them at the Hurricane Friday night, but that they lost track of him sometime after 11 p.m. Norma Kerr said her son, who was born and raised in London, was a driver for Yellow Cab. He leaves behind a wife, Natasha, a 6-year-old daughter, Rachel, several siblings and many friends, she said. "Everybody who knew him loved him," she said. "I lost my baby. I miss that wonderful smile coming through the door."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
