ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRYN MAWR, PA.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Investigators swarmed to a home in this upscale Philadelphia suburb Tuesday as a young tow truck driver became the focus of a probe into the death of a George Mason University athlete.
Authorities were tight-lipped about their visit to a home, which began around noon. By early evening, a caravan of unmarked police cars carrying forensics personnel pulled into the driveway and along the street. State and local police remained on the scene into Tuesday night, executing a search warrant on the house, two cars and a person in the house, according to state police Trooper McRay Bostick Jr. The affidavits for the warrant were sealed by court order.
A tow truck arrived about 8 p.m.; a half-hour later, it hauled away a small, light-green car.
However, investigators said they were not prepared to arrest Andrew Michael Kobak, who is believed to live in the home.
The media set up camp across the street as word spread that investigators believed Kobak, 23, was connected with the death of Aimee Willard.
The bludgeoned, nude body of Willard, 22, of Brookhaven, Pa., was found in a North Philadelphia vacant lot Thursday, hours after state police found her abandoned car on an off-ramp to Interstate 476.
The All-American lacrosse player at George Mason in Fairfax, Va., had just completed a record-setting junior season and was on her way home from a suburban bar when her car was found idling in the early-morning hours.
An autopsy showed she died from three blows to the head and that she was alive when her body was dumped in the trash-strewn lot. Imprints on her body were consistent with the diamond-pattern tread of a tow truck bed.
Investigators quickly suspected a chatty tow truck driver who appeared at the crime scene around dawn and began talking to investigators about the case. According to a report in the Philadelphia Daily News, the man told police that if anyone had seen his vehicle in the area, he had nothing to do with Willard's disappearance. When police started pressing for what he knew about the young woman's final hours, the man stopped speaking and hired a lawyer, according to reports published Tuesday.
Kobak was not arrested or charged Tuesday. However, he had once been arrested - but not convicted - of impersonating a police officer, newspapers reported. And, according to police, Kobak may have worked in the neighborhood where Willard's body was found.
Witnesses also reported seeing a man speaking to two women in the parking lot of Smoke Joe's bar in Wayne, where Willard was last seen alive, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.Katie Burlingame, 17, who attended the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur with Willard, looked on Tuesday as police stood guard outside the house.
``I feel I have to be here for her,'' said Burlingame.
She said that since the murder, ``I'm scared half to death to come out. It's been a lot of sleepless nights.''
Friends of the slain athlete erected a memorial on the edge of the highway where her car was found``God Bless You Aimee. You'll Be Missed,'' read a sign hanging near piles of flowers. and in the lot where her body was found.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB