Police: Crash Didn't Cause Minivan .jpg)
Fire
Updated: Tuesday, 28 Jul 2009, 11:38 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 28 Jul 2009, 11:38 PM EDT
Source: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news
BETHESDA, Md. - There are new details surrounding the mysterious death of a man found inside his burning minivan in Bethesda.
Police are not calling it a case of murder, but they say they still don't know what happened to Ebrima Sarr. They say the fire did not start in the engine of the minivan, and it was not a result of the collision. But what did cause it remains a mystery.
Ebrima Sarr was from the West African nation of Gambia. A married father of three, he was 45 and had been living in the United States for nearly 20 years.
Sarr was last seen alive leaving his part-time job at an Exxon Gas Station on Gallows Road in Annandale. It was Monday morning around 2:30 a.m.
Ninety minutes later, Sarr was found dead inside his burning minivan on Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda.
Chuck McBride worked with Sarr at the gas station on Gallows Road, and says a surveillance camera captured Sarr leaving before his 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift was over.
"He was calm," McBride said. "He walked out of here, walked to his vehicle, came back, locked the door, and then we could see the vehicle drive away as he was leaving."
His relatives say Sarr left the Virginia gas station because an alarm went off at the Glen Echo Exxon where he worked full-time-- and until 9 p.m. Sunday night.
"They called the house-- phone call came to the house from the alarm company, and then nobody picked up," said Modon Loppy, the victim's relative. "So I assume they called him on the cell phone or something. Then he shut down the other gas station responding to the other one."
Police would not comment on that report, but they say the fire was not the result of a collision. It did not start in the engine, but in the passenger compartment.
"So according to that, somebody must have ignited that fire from the inside," said Loppy, adding that Sarr was not under any stress that would cause him to start the fire himself.
"It's got to be foul play because he's sitting behind the wheel, you're burning, you're alive, you're going to be moving all around-- you're not going to be sitting there behind the wheel," said McBride. "I think he was killed before and then of course the evidence was trying to be burned up."
Still questions remain about what happened to Sarr. Investigators say even the autopsy hasn't shed definitive light on the truth.
