Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 3, 1995                   TAG: 9510030090
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: IRONTO                                 LENGTH: Medium

TRUCKER'S BODY FOUND AT REST STOP

The engine was running. The heat was on. The radio was playing.

But a Georgia truck driver apparently lay dead in his rig at the Ironto rest stop on Interstate 81 for a week before someone checked on him.

Larry E. Myrick, a 50-year-old driver from Toccoa, Ga., pulled into the rest stop Sept. 24 or early Sept. 25, got into the rig's sleeping quarters and died. His body wasn't found until Monday morning, when rest stop employees called the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and the Virginia State Police, Capt. O.P. Ramsey said Monday afternoon.

A deputy who arrived shortly after the 9:29 a.m. call found flies surrounding the truck and a noticeable smell. Ramsey, a long-time evidence technician before being promoted to head of the Sheriff's Office's law enforcement division, went to the scene.

Myrick was found shirtless in the sleeping quarters of the cab. He apparently had been sitting up and may have crawled back there to make entries in his log book or to take a quick rest, Ramsey said.

The fuel tank was still half-full. An audiotape of the Bible had ejected from the cassette player.

Myrick drove for A & P Transportation Inc., based in Calhoun, Ga. He had started with them last month, Ramsey said, and had passed a physical Sept. 7.

From company records and a check of the cab's contents, authorities determined Myrick had used a gas card in Max Meadows on Sept. 24. He was on his way to New Jersey.

The company requires truckers to call in daily. Myrick called in Sept. 24, but not the following day. The trucking company canceled his fuel card Sept. 26.

"I think ... he fueled up at Max Meadows, and he's been there since late the 24th or early the 25th," Ramsey said.

An autopsy will be conducted today. Ramsey said there were no apparent injuries and "it appears that he died rather quick ... But at this time there's no apparent foul play."

Death probably was from natural causes or possibly carbon monoxide poisoning, Ramsey said, but the the body was too decomposed to rule out poisoning without lab tests.

State police routinely patrol the rest area to enforce posted signs that tell motorists they cannot park there for more than two hours.

Keywords:
FATALITY