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Ogden police are asking for help in solving a bizarre death. First they thought the man died in a car crash. Now they're treating it as a murder.
Early Friday morning, Jeffrey Bancroft swerved into the Praxair building at 1903 Wall Avenue.
"We get him to the hospital, they start doing their procedures, we get an autopsy and find out he had a bullet wound in his back -- which now means that the accident was secondary to the initial being shot by somebody," said Ogden police Lt. Tony Fox.
Now police are trying to figure out who killed the 47-year-old man.
Investigators know last Thursday night, Bancroft went to work his usual graveyard shift at Williams International near the airport. Around 3:00 in the morning, he took a lunch break.
Police say Bancroft went to the Rancheritos drive-thru at 36th Street and Washington Boulevard. The restaurant is about a 15-minute drive from where he worked.
Investigators are trying to figure out if there some type of confrontation or altercation between the restaurant and the accident scene.
"It does appear that he was shot in the back side, so you can deduce from that, that he may have been speeding away from somebody. Whether they were in a vehicle or on foot, we're not prepared to go there right now because we don't have enough information," Fox said.
Over the weekend, police interviewed Bancroft's family, friends and co-workers. So far, they have no leads on how he died.
Investigators are turning to the public for help. "We really need somebody to step up that was in the area -- witnesses or people out and about that time of night, even on foot or in a vehicle," Fox said.
Just to clarify, Ogden police are looking for anyone in the area of 1900 South and Wall Avenue early Friday morning between 2 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.
If you were there, you can contact the Ogden City Police Department at (801) 629-8221.
E-mail: gkennedy@ksl.com
E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com
