Police release name of burned SUV owner

February 23, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Police have identified the owner of a sport utility vehicle that was found burning early Monday with a body inside.

Lt. Doug Bobovnyik said the SUV is registered to Zack Howell, 40, who has also been missing for a few days.

Bobovnyik said detectives have a belief who the victim is, but are still awaiting a dental-records report by the Mahoning County Coroner’s office for a positive identification.

The coroner’s office said whoever was in the SUV, which was found about 7:40 a.m. behind a vacant home on Edgar Street, was shot twice in the head and was dead before the fire was set.

According to his Facebook page, Howell was planning to run for mayor, but there was no official filing for his campaign as of yet, according to the Mahoning County Board of Elections. His slogan is “Real Change, Right Now.”

Bobovnyik said Howell is well-known to police and has a criminal record.

Municipal court records show charges dating back to 2000 on weapons and drugs, but the last criminal charge filed against him was in 2010. He did have charges filed against him in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman in 2012 and 2015, according to court records, and criminal charges in common pleas court in 2001 and 2004.

In 2002, he was found not guilty of a gun charge in federal court.

The coroner’s office is using a forensic dentist to assist in trying to determine the identity of the man found in the SUV. The body was burned so badly that Dr. Joseph Ohr, forensic pathologist for Mahoning County, said it was “partially skeletonized.”