THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 9, 1994 TAG: 9408090426
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
A 34-year-old Elizabeth City man was found dead in his apartment bedroom Monday after a concerned relative inquired about his whereabouts.
The nude body of Michael Kevin Arranz of 1212 Carolina Ave. was lying face down on the bed in his two-room apartment. Police said he had been there for several days.
Police on Monday would say only that Arranz died under ``suspicious circumstances'' and were waiting for an autopsy today to determine the cause of death.
``Just by looking at him, we can't tell how he died,'' said Lt. Joe Tade, who said that decomposition had made an immediate ruling impossible. Tade said there were no signs of forced entry and no evidence of a struggle.
``Not a whole lot of a crime scene,'' Tade said. ``Everything was in order. It was relatively neat for a single man living by himself.''
Police said Arranz, whose birthday was last Tuesday, did not show up for a party the family had planned for him Sunday.
Arranz's brother, Nino Arranz, went to the apartment Monday and told the building's managing partner, Craig Barkley, that he was concerned. ``He asked if I minded if he checked the apartment because he (Arranz) didn't answer the door,'' Barkley said.
Barkley said he sent an employee up to the third-floor apartment with the brother, where they discovered the body.
Police would discuss few details about the case. Initial radio dispatch reports said a nude body, bluish-colored, had been found shackled. Police confirmed only that the body was bound and nude but would release no other details. Nino Arranz declined to comment.
Ambulances at the scene were turned back as police waited for a crime scene investigator from Raleigh to arrive. State Bureau of Investigation officers, police investigators and several patrol officers were involved in the investigation.
Officers ran police tape around the three-story yellow-sided building and around two cars that apparently belonged to Arranz.
Neighbors in the quiet, tree-lined neighborhood gathered in clusters throughout the day as they learned of the death. Tenants in Arranz's building were turned away by police. The tenants were allowed to return to the building around 7:30 p.m. The apartment is ``very nice, very quiet - usually,'' said Phyllis Orlow, 78, who has lived in the building for 8 years.
``It's very comfortable, relaxed - definitely not this sort of thing.''
Another tenant said the building frequently was filled with ``transients.''
Michael Arranz graduated from First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach in 1979, according to employment records at the Budget Host Inn in Kill Devil Hills, where Arranz had worked as a part-time desk clerk since May 31.
``He wasn't a very talkative person,'' said Carolyn Vandenburg, who assumed management of the hotel at about the same time Arranz quit last week to go to college.
The overnight shift starting Wednesday, Aug. 3, apparently was his last day at work.
``He didn't say goodbye, so long, see ya, nada,'' Vandenburg said. Arranz, who apparently had attended College of The Albemarle, was preregistered for the fall at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Officials there said his major was listed as ``natural resource management.''
Arranz's apartment showed signs of a student's life. A low table had a stack of literature books. A stack of software lay by his computer.
One of Arranz's cars is a blue Jeep Wagoner that neighbors said he had just bought to take to college with him.
``He was all excited about it,'' neighbor Nora Lee, 48, said of Arranz's school plans. ``He seemed pleasant enough when we talked. . . He was just a normal, everyday guy.''
Arranz worked for several years at Tarheel Distributing Co. in Elizabeth City, employees there said, before leaving in 1992 or 1993. One employee said he had been to several Baltimore Orioles baseball games with Arranz.
Arranz's records at the hotel also showed that he worked as a warehouse clerk for The Daily Advance from 1985-87 and had served in the U.S. Army from 1981-85.
KEYWORDS: FATALITY
by CNB