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Mailman finds body on North Side Saturday
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police say a body in the back of a vacant North Side house spotted by a mailman Saturday is the city’s 14th homicide victim of 2015.
Chief of Detectives Capt. Brad Blackburn said the man’s body was found about noon Saturday at a vacant home in the 100 block of Saranac Avenue.
Blackburn said police are waiting to release the man’s identity until his family positively identifies him. He did say the man is in his late 20s.
Blackburn said it appeared the man was shot where he was found.
“We believe he was shot there,” Blackburn said.
He said there were 911 calls about 12:30 a.m. Saturday for gunfire at Elm Street and Saranac Avenue and officers went to check, but they could not find anything.
Blackburn said where the body was found would have been hard for anyone to see in the dark.
Blackburn said a couple is renovating the home to get it ready to rent. He said they left early Friday evening and noticed nothing unusual at that time.
Youngstown had 19 homicides in 2014. At this point in 2014, the city had nine homicides. Saturday’s death is the first homicide of 2015 on the North Side. There were five homicides on the North Side in 2014.
The last homicide in the city was July 26, when Jarrell Brown, 18, was found shot to death at West Indianola Avenue and Market Street.
Two teens were charged with Brown’s death and are being held in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center.