THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610200073
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 40 lines
A 20-year-old man who may have been in a fight at the Oceanfront early Saturday was found dead in a car hours later, police said.
The Marine, whose name was not released, was found dead in his girlfriend's car outside her home in the 800 block of Boxhill Road.
The man was stationed in Chesapeake.
Police said the man and woman had gone to a party at the Stargate Oceanfront Suites near 19th Street and Atlantic Avenue.
Around 3 a.m., someone told the woman that her boyfriend was unconscious in the parking lot. He appeared to be sleeping, she told police, and with the help of a security guard, she put him into her car and drove home, police spokesman Lou Thurston said.
Thurston said the woman later told detectives that her boyfriend was breathing, but she couldn't wake him. Because of his size, she couldn't carry him into her house, Thurston said, so she covered him with a blanket and left him to sleep in the car.
About 10:30 a.m., the woman went outside to check on her boyfriend, and he was dead.
Detectives are investigating the case as a homicide, but no one had determined Saturday afternoon how the man died.
Police said the man may have gotten into an argument or fight with others at the the party and that they are looking for witnesses.
Although a cold front dropped the temperature to near freezing Saturday morning, state medical examiner N. Turner Gray didn't believe that caused the man's death.
The man's body was sent to the Norfolk crime lab for an autopsy that may help police learn what happened to him.
There were no external signs that showed the cause of death, Gray said.
Police are asking anyone with information about what happened to call 427-0000.
KEYWORDS: FATALITY VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT
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