This happened on a very desolate road that boarders the coal mine I work at.  One of the foreman on the crew is the chief of the fire district and was there when they popped the trunk.

June 15, 2002

By April Zepeda




BUCODA - What began as a car fire early Saturday morning, has now turned into a murder investigation.

Fire fighters found a body in the trunk of a burning car along a rural road just north of Centralia.

It was a security guard who noticed it, as he made his rounds near a Thurston county rock mine.

"At 12:40 a.m. he goes through the area - the car's not there. At 1:15 a.m. the car's there and on fire," said Lt. Brad Watkins with the Thurston County Sheriff's Department.

Firefighters arrived to douse the flames, and that's when they discovered the body in the truck. It was a man in his 20's or 30's, but they could tell no more.

"Obviously, starting a vehicle on fire is to try and destroy evidence and destroy the body. What your doing is so we can't identify who the person is, and destroy any trace evidence that may be associated with it," said Watkins.

The area is patrolled by security officers hourly. But it's very remote and so far detectives haven't been able to find anyone else who saw anything.

Detectives traced the car to an owner in Yakima, who told them a relative recently borrowed the car.

Investigators will head to Eastern Washington to see if that owner is a member of the victim's family.

An autopsy is scheduled for Monday morning.

[url]http://www.komotv.com/stories/18917.htm[/url]

Suicide....

Scott

Yakama = YakaVegas = Mexicans = Drugs = Deal = Gone bad / or good depending on how you look at it.

The Spelunker Ninja deserves a round of applause for his good work.