BELMONT — A 25-year-old Belmont man has been identified as the victim of a car fire that happened late last month on Deckard Ridge Road.
Anthony James Cox died from smoke inhalation, Coroner Earl Piper said Jan. 14. He ruled the death accidental.
Police were dispatched to Deckard Ridge Road just after 8 a.m. Dec. 29 for a vehicle that had been burned and was still smoldering, according to a press release from the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
The small car was stuck in the mud on the side of the road with a person’s remains in it.
Deckard Ridge is gravel and seldom traveled, in the far southwest corner of the county in the area of Yellowwood State Forest and Hoosier National Forest.
Six hours before the car was found, a resident reported that a vehicle had traveled through the yard of a home in the 2800 block of T.C. Steele Road, struck a carport there and continued southbound without stopping. That vehicle left parts at the scene, including a Kia grille emblem and a blue paint transfer. Police were unable to find the vehicle at that time.
“Because of the fire (damage) we’re not going to be able to say like 1,000 percent, but we’re pretty sure it is (the same car),” Det. Brian Shrader said on Jan. 14.
“As far as the car itself, it was probably the most damaged I had ever seen,” Piper said.
Evidence had shown that the fire victim had been driving the vehicle, but was likely trying to move to the backseat, Piper said.
The fire marshal reported that the driver’s side window was either down or partially down at the time of the crash, which would have caused the fire to be vented out the driver’s side door, Shrader said.
“It would have been hard for him to go out that way,” Shrader said.
The fire started in the front of the vehicle. The state fire marshal was unable to say definitively if it started in the engine area. “All we can tell you is it started in the front and it worked its way back,” Shrader said.
The investigation was difficult due to the fire damage to the car, Shrader said.
“You want to be sure and make sure that nothing was criminal,” he said.
“There’s nothing that we’re going to be able to say definitively. We all have our speculation like you do, but there’s nothing we can say for sure that that’s what happened. There was essentially nothing left to the car.”
DNA from Cox’s two young children and his mother was used to identify him, Piper said. The results were back within a week, but the coroner and the sheriff’s department worked to complete the investigation with the family before releasing his identity.
Cox’s wife reported him missing between 9 and 10 p.m. on Dec. 29. Search warrants were used to “fill in the gaps” of Cox’s activity that day.
Cox was at “an establishment” in Bloomington before the crash, but Shrader declined to specify where. A toxicology report was unable to be done because they couldn’t get enough samples from the body, Piper said.
The investigation is now closed.
On Jan. 4, Cox’s sister-in-law, Hannah Frazier, created a GoFundMe account in his memory. As of Jan. 14, it had raised $10,205 of its $11,000 goal.
According to that page, Cox had two children, ages 1 and 2.
“He was an amazing son, brother, friend, husband and father and we cannot begin to fathom life without him,” Frazier wrote.
She described Cox as “a devoted father and always made sure his family was well taken care of.”
“He so generously worked extra hours and night shifts to guarantee Aubrey (his wife) could stay at home and raise their children for the past few years,” she writes.
“With his sudden passing, I’m not sure how my sister will make ends meet until she is able to get a job, and even then, it will be tight.”
Donations will go toward bills, food, diapers and other family needs “until they can stand on their feet again,” Frazier wrote.
“Anthony always had a smile on his face. He brought joy and laughter to those around him,” one donor wrote.
“Anthony was A+ in my book. … He was the first one that I allowed my oldest to run with when they reached the age of driving. He was always respectful to me and always followed through with what I asked of him,” another donor wrote.
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A GoFundMe fundraising page has been set up to aid the fire victim’s family: “In Memory of Anthony James Cox.”
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