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Deputies ID Body Found In Burned SUV As Its Owner

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By RAY REYES

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 27, 2008

TAMPA - Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives have identified a body found Saturday in a burned sport utility vehicle as that of its owner, 47-year-old James Patrick Fry.

Dental records confirmed the identity of Fry, of 3011 Gandy Blvd., the sheriff's office said Tuesday.

Firefighters were called about 2:10 a.m. Saturday to a brush fire near Taylor and Skewlee roads in Thonotosassa. They found the Chevrolet SUV in flames near some woods and found the body inside.

The cause of death has not been reported.

"An individual found in a burned vehicle raises a lot of questions," but without autopsy results, detectives are handling the case as a death investigation and not a homicide, sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said.

Fry's daughter, Stephanie Fry of Sarasota, said she had suspected the body in the SUV was her father's before detectives notified her Tuesday afternoon of the positive identification.

She has a "gut feeling" that someone killed her father.

"My dad doesn't know Thonotosassa and doesn't go there," Fry, 18, said.

She and her father had been estranged for many years but reunited July 30, Fry said. The last time she heard from him was Friday afternoon. The two planned to have lunch Saturday and then shoot pool, she said.

Editor Howard Altman contributed to this report. Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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