The body of a man was found in an alley on Sunday



Chico police found the body of an elderly man early Sunday in the Avenues

The Sunday death of a Chico resident has turned into a homicide investigation as officers found evidence of vehicle-damage on the body.
Police reported that on November 6, the body of an elderly man was discovered by Chico Police Department in an alley on the 1200 block between Hobart Street and Citrus Avenue.
Neighbors reported that an individual may have been dead or sleeping in the alley, police Lt. Rob Nerfield said.
“We got a call at 1:14 in the morning from a citizen who reported that he had seen someone lying down in an alley on the 1200 block of Citrus,” Nerfield said, “and that he believed that they might be dead.”
Officers soon determined that the man was dead.
“We responded officers to that scene and as they drove into the alley they saw a man down in the middle of the alley, they checked him and determined that he was in fact deceased,” Nerfield said.
Based on signs on the body, officers determined that the man had been in a collision and that the injuries sustained were most likely caused by a vehicle.
“As they were dealing with him they saw evidence of a collision so they formed the opinion based on the condition of the body that the person had been hit and possibly run over by a vehicle,” Nerfield said.
People die, but not many from hit-and-run accidents according to Nerfield.
“We don’t often see hit-and-run collisions involving death, although we have had at least one other one this year,” he said, “in this past year I think we’ve handled five to six fatal collisions.”
Investigators have identified a potential suspect.
“One of the officers that was in the neighborhood and was assigned to what we would call canvas the neighborhood for witnesses,” said Nerfield. “During that neighborhood canvas he encountered a person who he believed had been involved in the collision and after some interaction with that person he formed the opinion that he had been driving the vehicle and had collided with the victim.”
Chico Police Department have not identified the victim.
“We know that the victim is I believe a 60-year-old male resident of Chico but apparently he was currently homeless in Chico,” said Nerfield.
These are some of the elements that go into these types of investigations according to Nerfield.
“Well, in effect, it’s a homicide investigation, so we are doing some investigative steps to determine a number of things. One is we, the Major Accident Investigation Team is trying to determine the mechanics of the collision so in case like this that there are no eyewitnesses that we know of.”
Police are still piecing together what exactly happened.
“We are still in the process of examining the suspect’s vehicle and the body of the deceased to try to connect up the events and how mechanically, how did it happen.”
Although the suspect was tested for alcohol on the scene, the details of that part of the investigation weren't disclosed.
“It will be disclosed during the trial,” said Nerfield. “We don’t typically disclose the results of chemical tests but that information would likely come out in the trial.”’
The suspect was arraigned Wednesday in Oroville and is awaiting his preliminary hearing.
“In the meantime we will continue to put information together for the District Attorney prior to the preliminary hearing,” said Nerfield.

By John Domogma

Anonymous

ChicoReport is a local news project produced by students in the Public Affairs Reporting class (JOUR 321) at California State University, Chico. You can read more about the individual reporters, editors and writers on our Contributors page. If you have questions, comments or news tips, email us at chicoreport@gmail.com