City family finds man dead in parked vehicle
Posted: February 2, 2013
The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER — It’s not every day that someone stumbles across a dead body, but that’s just what happened to a local family Friday.
“I was picking my son up from elementary school,” city resident Lahoma Mitchell said after finding an unresponsive man in a parked vehicle. “He was in the passenger side slumped over.”
City police officers responded to the call just before 3 p.m. in the 1000 block of South Kent Street, at its intersection with Southwerk Street, near Quarles Elementary School.
The man — whose identity has not been released — was dead when officers arrived.
Police spokeswoman Lauren Cummings said the case is under investigation, but that the death is not believed to be suspicious.
Kent and Southwerk streets were blocked while officers investigated the incident.
Mitchell said that when she encountered the body, she immediately called her husband Paul, who came to the scene and called 911.
He said he was instructed to try cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but “knew at that moment that it was too late for that.”
“He was pretty well stiff and cold,” Paul Mitchell said.
He and his wife said that once police arrived on the scene, several people gathered on the sidewalk to see the law enforcement activity.
“[We’re] just hoping that there’s a normal [explanation] to what took place,” Lahoma Mitchell said.
— Contact Melissa Boughtonat mboughton@winchesterstar.com