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Motorist Dies After Deputies Abandon Search For Him

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The Associated Press

Published: February 23, 2008

GARRETT, Ind. - Confused police abandoned their search for a car wreck, leaving a 66-year-old man, who died outside his vehicle in freezing temperatures, and his autistic grandson, who huddled inside for nearly a day.

A passer-by talking to a dispatcher tried to direct city officers and DeKalb County sheriff's deputies to the wrecked car Monday afternoon. They mistook the vehicle as belonging to someone gathering firewood, police said.
Deputies found the body of Duane Squire of Avilla outside his car Tuesday afternoon. His 14-year-old grandson, Erich Squire, survived inside the car during a night when temperatures fell into the single digits; he was treated and released from a hospital.

"I feel very strongly that if they had gone out there right away, he'd be with us now," Squire's widow, Julie Squire, told WANE-TV in Fort Wayne.
Chief Deputy Jay Oberholtzer said the two deputies who abandoned the search were "devastated by it, because they're very dedicated officers."

Passers-by including Cheryl Monroe of Auburn alerted the sheriff's office soon after Squire's car veered off County Road 48, a busy route between Garrett and Auburn about 20 miles north of Fort Wayne.

The dispatcher, after talking to the deputy on the scene, assured Monroe that everything was OK.

"They didn't wreck. They had permission to go back there. So they've just driven off the road on purpose," the dispatcher told her in a 911 recording released by the sheriff's office. "They checked on him."

Monroe did not accept the explanation.

"He flew off the road at a high rate of speed ... no brakes applied or anything," she told the dispatcher.

The dispatcher replied, "It's probably meant to be some sort of weird joke. But yeah, he got our attention."

Squire's car was about half-mile from the nearest road, Oberholtzer said.

A DeKalb County deputy told a Garrett police officer about the car, and the officer said he responded to a call in the same spot last month only to learn that the person had permission to gather firewood there, Garrett Police Chief Rex Harpel said.

However, Harpel said the Garrett officer did not see Squire's car: "He didn't know if these were the same people."

Coroner Jeff Warner said Duane Squire had tracked mud inside the vehicle and left muddy handprints on the outside of the car before he died.

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