Saturday, August 14, 2010

Body identified as homeowner


August 14, 2010 - By MATTHEW SCHOMER / Special to The Review
HIGHLANDTOWN - The body of a man found Wednesday in an area behind a home on Spring Valley Road has been identified as the homeowner, 70-year-old William S. Young.
County Sheriff Ray Stone said the county coroner's office identified Young by checking a partial denture plate with a local dentist. Young's body had been in an advanced state of decomposition after being exposed to high temperatures for a prolonged period.
The sheriff's office is treating Young's death as suspicious in nature, but Stone noted the office cannot at this time consider the situation a homicide.
"Only the coroner can determine whether it was a homicide," he said, and the coroner's office had not made any announcement on the cause of death as of Friday.
Stone noted that his office has notified two of Young's siblings, who live in Pennsylvania. Young lived alone in the house at 16196 Spring Valley Road, he was not married at the time of his death and the sheriff's office possesses no knowledge of whether he was ever married or fathered any children.
Young's vehicle, a silver 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser, remains missing, although Stone released the registered license plate number on the vehicle as EEG 1436.
The sheriff's office on Wednesday responded to Young's home after an employee of his bank called saying there was suspicious activity on his account and no one could get in contact with him. Stone was unable to provide additional information Friday on the nature of the suspicious bank account activity.
"They were just concerned because they couldn't make contact," he said.
As deputies were searching the property, a Hookstown, Pa., woman driving down the road flagged down deputies. She identified herself as a life-long friend of Young and said she was concerned because she had been unable to contact him by telephone or at his home.
She said she had last seen him two weeks prior when she had cut his hair. The woman was the one who reported Young's vehicle missing from his garage.
The county coroner's office, which is currently determining the cause of death, had no official word on the state of the investigation on Friday.

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