Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
A man has been charged with felony receiving stolen property, after informants said he had the car belonging to a homicide victim.
Joseph Andrew Faunda, 44, was arrested at 4:52 p.m. Monday after being interviewed at the Youngstown Police Department regarding the homicide of Mykola (Mike) Iwaniuk, 84, a police report said. Two people in a residence (the people’s names and where the residence was were redacted from the report) told police Monday that Faunda arrived at their home 3:30 a.m. Jan. 20 in a beige vehicle. A person told police that Faunda said to them, “If I don’t see you anymore, I love you and I’m in trouble.”
Faunda initially told the people at the residence that he had found the car “running” on Evanston Avenue in Youngstown, but then said his girlfriend gave him the vehicle and it had a television in the back seat when he got into the car. Faunda later told the residents of that home on Jan. 22 that the car from Jan. 20 was Iwaniuk’s vehicle.
Iwaniuk was found dead Jan. 21 by police after a newspaper carrier became suspicious because his front door was open and his lights were on. He suffered several blunt-force injuries to the back of his head and was found lying by the front door. His car was found at Calvary Cemetery.
Youngstown police said Thursday that they believed he had been dead for more than a day when he was found. Iwaniuk’s slaying was the city’s first homicide in 2015.
The police report didn’t list an address for Faunda.