Police identify man dragged under vehicle

The victim’s body was sent to Cleveland for an autopsy.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — City police have identified the man dragged through a fast-food drive-through and along two city blocks early Saturday and impounded the car they believe was involved.

The Mahoning County Coroner’s office identified the victim as Andrew Culp, 22, of North Main Street, Columbiana.

Culp’s body was sent to Cleveland for an autopsy to determine whether he died as a result of being dragged or was killed in some other manner. It may be weeks before the exact cause of death is known, said police Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives.

Centorame said police know the name of the owner of the car involved, who, accompanied by an attorney, turned himself in to police Monday. Centorame would not identify the owner, nor say if he was the driver.

The car was towed from a residential area in Boardman and impounded. Evidence from the car was collected and sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation for analysis, he said.

Centorame praised the detectives, Sgts. John Kelty and Patrick Kelly, for a “tremendous effort,” working nearly 48 hours nonstop interviewing witnesses to determine what happened.

The investigation began with a 911 call about 1 a.m. Saturday from a person in the drive-through at McDonald’s restaurant at South Avenue and Midlothian Boulevard, who told the dispatcher there was a body under the car in front of him.

The caller said he told the driver ahead of him that there was a body under his car, and that the driver got out, looked under the car, and then drove away without paying for or getting the food he had ordered. The body left a trail of blood along Midlothian until it disengaged from the car near Euclid Boulevard.

Centorame thanked the media for putting out a plea by police for help in the case. It resulted in several witnesses’ coming forward and enabling police to get an idea of what happened to Culp, he said.

Witnesses said Culp may have been at the Utopia nightclub on Midlothian late Friday or early Saturday.

Police have a person of interest in the case, but no charges had been filed as of Monday, Centorame said.