Copper theft suspected as role in man's death

Copper is selling for between $2.45 and $2.50 per pound.
THE VINDICATOR
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- If it's determined that Bruce E. Clearwater was electrocuted while stealing copper, it will be the third noteworthy event involving the desire for the metal this month in the Mahoning Valley.
The decomposed body of the 22-year-old Mason Street man was found Tuesday night behind an electric transfer station at NRR Properties LLC on North River Road in Warren Township. The Trumbull County Coroner's office said an autopsy today at the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office will determine the cause of death.
The remains were taken to Cuyahoga because Trumbull doesn't have the facilities to autopsy decomposed bodies.
Clearwater was reported missing last Friday to city of Warren and Warren Township police.
The report filed in Warren by his wife, Vanessa Clearwater, said her husband left their home about 11 p.m. last Thursday. She told police that he was intoxicated and upset over money problems.
The 20-year-old woman told police her husband also mentioned suicide before leaving the house and going to a plant.
Clearwater's car previously had been found abandoned, she reported, along a gas-well road off Mahoning Avenue near the Giant Eagle, the missing-persons report said.
Body found
Warren Township Lt. Don Bishop said police had searched the area in the days before he was found by his mother, who had joined the search.
Bishop said Clearwater's mother spotted something at the overgrown substation. Police later found it was his body.
Bishop said it appeared Clearwater had used bolt cutters to get into the substation and climbed onto the first level that had 28,000- to 30,000-volt lines that had been deactivated.
The second level, where the cutters were found, had an energized 138,000-volt line, the lieutenant explained.
Other recent cases
If Clearwater was electrocuted while stealing copper, it would be the second such death this month in the Valley.
The body of Louis C. McGee, 40, of North Pearl Street, Youngstown, was found June 5 at the former Cold Metal Products plant in Campbell.
Authorities said he attempted to cut through a 2,400-volt electrical wire and then fell 25 feet to the factory floor.
And on June 6, a Mercer Avenue house in Warren blew up while two men were stealing copper line but instead ripped open a gas line, causing the explosion.
James T. McElrath, 19, of Atlantic Street, and Michael A. McVickers, 20, of Palmyra Road, Lordstown, have been charged with felony burglary. The house has since been razed.
Ben Sunderlin, operations manager at Atlas Recycling Inc. in Warren, said the price of copper has increased by 300 percent since January 2005.
Depending on the grade, copper sells for between $2.45 and $2.50 per pound.
Sunderlin said that although the price has leveled off, the volume brought to his scrap yard is steady, and he thinks copper thefts nationwide are the result of the increased price.
Clearwater previously had been convicted of stealing copper and was on probation. He also was under indictment on an arson charge.
yovich@vindy.com