TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

2 bodies found at Sunshine Skyway bridge

Staff photo by DAVID KRAUT

Hillsborough County deputies investigate two deaths at the Sunshine Skyway on Monday afternoon.

ADVERTISEMENT

By PETER BERNARD | WFLA
and JOSÉ PATIÑO GIRONA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2009

Updated: 10/13/2009 05:21 am

Deputies know this much: Two people are dead at the Sunshine Skyway bridge. One jumped off the span, the other was found nearby in the trunk of a burned car.

Beyond that, questions abound.

Who are the two dead people? What is their connection? How did the person in the car die? And did the jumper set the car on fire?

Here's what authorities are saying:

The sheriff's office received a call at 3:12 p.m. Monday of a car on fire on the bridge.

Firefighters popped the smoldering car's truck and found a body, said Debbie Carter, a sheriff's office spokeswoman.

"The body was kind of burned, so I can't tell you for sure if it was a female or a male," Carter said.

Firefighters were extinguishing the fire on the car when they received several calls of a man who jumped off the bridge. A Florida Highway Patrol officer also saw the man jump off the bridge, the sheriff's office said.

The fire department sent marine units to the scene.

When the fire department unit reached the bridge, the body of a white male in his 30s had been recovered by three people in an 18-foot fishing boat.

The man in the water and the person in the car are connected, said Lt. Joel Granata, spokesman with St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue.

"From confirmation they are related," Granata said. The man found dead in the water "was the driver of the car."

Jamie Foster's family runs the north fishing pier. She said the captain of the boat that picked up the man who had jumped called on his marine radio. "He was saying, who knows CPR? Who knows CPR? And I said, 'We do.'''

Foster said she was about to jump in the water to help but the man looked like he would need more advanced medical care than CPR so she told the captain to meet the ambulance that was on its way.
She said the people on the boat said the man was still breathing.

"I was telling one of the anglers, pump air into his mouth. They were going, we don't know CPR. I said just breathe into his mouth, just breathe into his mouth.''

Authorities said efforts to revive the man were ultimately unsuccessful.

Southbound traffic on the bridge was reduced to one lane as the sheriff's office investigated the case, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Carter said the investigation will be a lengthy process.

Stay with TBO.com for updates.

Share this:

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT