Residents of one Orange Country neighborhood are reeling after a mysterious SUV engulfed in flames rolled down their street Monday afternoon and into one man’s driveway with three dead adults seated inside.
56-year old driveway owner “Mike”–owner of the home where the black GMC Yukon came to rest–heard a “loud thud,” according to the Orange County Register, and sprung up to find the flaming vehicle headed toward his home. He pulled a fire extinguisher from his garage to quell the flames.
Uber driver Albert Riley was waiting nearby when he saw a woman waving her arms and he noticed the burning vehicle. Riley used a neighbor’s hose to spray the SUV down alongside Mike, the Register reports. As the men sprayed the vehicle they spotted at least two bodies and red fluid appeared to be blood coming from the flaming SUV. It wasn’t until City of Orange firefighters showed up that the blaze was contained.
Police have launched an investigation into the deaths of the three individuals that were reported as so badly burned neither identities nor genders were immediately determinable.
The vehicle’s driver was reported to be fleeing, according to the Associated Press.
Police found three bodies in the vehicle – one in the passenger seat and two in the back – after the flames were put out according to the report. Cause of death and identities remain in question pending an autopsy scheduled for Thursday.
“We don’t know if the fire was postmortem,” Lopez said, according to the OC Register. Records on the SUV’s ownership are incomplete according to Lopez who said the vehicle “has switched hands so many times.”
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