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Body found in burning car on East Side
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Betty Jones had an appointment about 11 a.m. Friday and saw a car off the side of the road on Seifert Avenue with a man slumped over the steering wheel and the door open.
When she came back, the city fire department was hosing down a fire in the car, and the man was still in the front seat. He was dead.
Police said Friday they are not sure how the person died. Firefighters called police about 1:20 p.m. after they found a body in the front seat.
Chief of Detectives Capt. Brad Blackburn said an autopsy would have to be done to determine cause of death.
Although Jones said she saw a man in the car, Blackburn said the body in the front seat was burned so severely that the gender of the victim was not readily apparent.
He termed the case a “death investigation” until the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office can determine how the person died. He said an autopsy likely will be needed to determine the person’s identity as well.
Jones, who lives on Seifert Avenue, said she thought the person she saw in the car was drunk.
“I thought it was strange,” she said.
Jones called the fire “big” when she saw it burning.
“I heard at least two pops, like it got to the gas tank,” she said.
The car was parked on the side of the road near Knapp Avenue in front of a vacant home that was almost covered by wild trees , grass and other vegetation. Few homes are left on the street.
Jones’ son, Emmanuel Bunkley, watched as police and fire and coroner’s investigators looked over the car for clues.
Bunkley said he was upset because he complains regularly about dumping and other illegal activity in the area, the Sharonline neighborhood on the East Side, which has several rural patches, and it seems no one listens until someone turns up dead there.
“They dump tires; they dump everything. This looks like a dumping ground,” said Bunkley, who spoke amid several discarded tires a nd television sets near a sign that warned people about illegal dumping and of video surveillance.