Female corpse found in trunk of man's car

Article 1
U.S. Park Police were questioning a man Sunday after finding the body of a young woman in the trunk of his car parked on Conzelman Road in the Marin Headlands.
A park police officer first came to the aid of the man, who was in a white Honda Civic, about noon Sunday because he looked ill and was vomiting, according to Christine Powell, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service. She said the officer decided there was cause to search the car and in the process discovered the body of a young white female in the trunk.
The man, also white and young, was first taken to Marin General Hospital and later released into the custody of the park police, Powell said. He is a suspect in the case, and authorities were questioning him Sunday to try to determine what happened, she said.

Article 2
A woman's body was discovered Sunday in the trunk of a man's car parked in the Marin Headlands.
A National Park Service ranger approached a man parked on the side of the road on Hawk Hill around 11:45 a.m. because he was vomiting off the side of his car, said U.S. Park Police spokeswoman Christine Powell. After briefly questioning the man, the ranger searched his white Honda Civic and discovered the body in the trunk, she said.
The 25-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was taken to Marin General Hospital, where he was treated and released. Powell said she didn't know what he was treated for.
U.S. Park police held him for questioning late Sunday.
Authorities said the body of a 21-year-old white woman appeared to have been dead for 12 to 24 hours. An autopsy was planned to determine the identity and exact cause of death.



My Comments:
How does a park ranger find a man with a corpse in his car trunk and not immediately call in the authorities to investigate? Based on one article in the paper this morning the gentleman discovered with the corpse in his trunk was taken to the hospital for illness then released into custody of the park rangers for questioning. Another article just states that the man was treated and released. What I want to know is not why the man was riding around with a corpse in his trunk, but what’s the protocol for Park Rangers when discovering such an individual? Should I be found in the same situation, this is still a fictional piece, would the Park Rangers treat me like a cousin who’s just a bit ill and maybe confused or because of maybe my skin color will I be handcuffed and thrown into some cold barracks cell puking my illness all over myself while they wait for the “Real Authorities” to arrive to question me?

I try very hard not to read racial tones into stories such as these but I can’t help but wonder how someone with a corpse, not a dead dog or a stolen palm tree, but a corpse, be given such courteous treatment by anyone wearing a civic badge? If there was suspicion enough to search the suspect’s car, then why wasn’t there precautions taken to apprehend him first and treat his illness later as practiced with so many other arrests? Nowhere in the article does it say why the corpse was in the trunk. So either there’s a language barrier or the suspect is taking the 5th amendment (refusing speech), which would definitely be cause for apprehension and containment.

The tone from the article doesn’t even seem alarming. At first I thought that maybe the Park Rangers, familiar with handling dead animal carcasses, determined the corpse to be that of someone long dead. But then I read the second article and it states that the corpse had been lifeless for 12 to 24 hours. Shouldn’t homicide detectives be called in immediately? Don’t all the homicide television shows say that the trail of a homicide murder is hottest within the first 24 to 48 hours of the crime? But for some unexplained reason the Park Rangers are heading the investigation and that’s what bothers me.

When I Think Park Ranger I think of a friendly guy named Bob dressed in green and wearing a green trooper type hat. You know the type, the outdoorsman with the scraggily mustache. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a park ranger with a firearm or even a pair of handcuffs. They tend to move slow, again probably from their experience with the handling of wild animals. Let’s face it, when was the last time you heard of a Park Ranger breaking open a murder case? Yeah, that’s what I thought, never. If anything it always seems like the Park Ranger is the one that screws up the evidence or fails to take precautions that would’ve caught a criminal sooner. How often do we hear of the Park Ranger stopping a suspicious vehicle only to say a few kind words to the killer behind the wheel, maybe give directions, and send him on his merry way? Only later, when the criminal is caught three states away, do we learn of the terrorized crime spree he’s committed and the lone Park Ranger that could have possibly prevented the carnage had he “called his suspicions into authorities.”

I guess I shouldn’t be so harsh on our Park Rangers. They’re job is to watch after our beautiful parks and remaining wildlife, not take on tough guy roles or play detective whenever humans go bad in their neck of the woods. So we’ll just have to wait and see where this story goes. It’s been a week of sad stories in the bay area with the mother who flung her three children into the bay and the teenager who brutally killed a woman because he needed money for his marijuana venture. How much of this behavior is due to economics and how much of it is just selfish needs? Or is the country just losing it's damn mind I wonder?

Oh, I almost forgot to share my final guess at why the suspect is being treated so royally, he’s related somehow to George Bush. That poor Park Ranger should’ve just given the bad human directions and kept his mouth shut.