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Body found in burned SUV behind vacant home
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A VIN – or vehicle identification number – is usually easy to find on a vehicle, even one that is burned.
But that was not the case Monday on a sport utility vehicle found burned behind a vacant Edgar Street home on the far East Side with a body inside.
The flames were so intense police could not read the numbers on the dashboard at all. A tow truck attached cables to the SUV and hoisted it so detectives and crime scene investigators could read the VIN underneath.
Police say the person who was found inside most likely will be the city’s fourth homicide victim of 2017, second within a week and third on the East Side this year.
Officers did manage to find the VIN underneath the late-model Chevrolet Tahoe and traced it to a person. Police questioned the family of the person later Monday, and the person to whom the SUV is registered is missing, said Lt. Doug Bobovnyik of the detective bureau. Bobovnyik did not want to release that person’s identity.
The body was so badly burned investigators could not tell if it was a man or a woman. Bobovnyik said a forensic dentist will have to come from Cleveland to help coroner’s officials with an identification.
Bobovnyik said firefighters were called to the home about 7:40 a.m. for a report of a car fire. Detectives were called in shortly after the body was discovered inside.
The home is on Edgar Street just before Josephine Avenue. It has a circular driveway, and the SUV was parked directly behind the house in the driveway.
“They were looking for a secluded place,” Bobovnyik said of whoever set the car on fire.
Bobovnyik said investigators needed the VIN number on the SUV to launch their investigation immediately since there was no identification on the body.
Detectives also will pore over recent missing-persons reports to see if they can find a lead that way, Bobovnyik said.
This was the second homicide victim discovered in a week in a remote spot on the East Side. On Feb. 14, police found the body of Savon Williams, 17, of Caledonia Street, shot several times, in a heavily wooded area off Wardle Avenue. He had been missing for several days before he was found.
On Jan. 25, Christopher Bridges, 23, was found shot to death in his Republic Avenue home.
The other homicide victim this year, Clevael Workman, was shot and killed Feb. 2 on Oxford Avenue on the North Side.
In 2016, Youngstown recorded 18 homicides. At this time last year, the city had recorded two homicides. The city did not record its fourth homicide until March 20.
There were four homicides recorded on the East Side in 2016 – on Ayers Street, Oak Street Extension, Knapp Avenue and McCartney Road.
The side of town that had the most homicides in 2016 was the South Side, with seven.