Man charged after woman's body found in car trunk

[July 18, 2011]  CLIFTON FORGE, Va. (AP) -- A North Carolina man has been charged with homicide and being a fugitive from justice after authorities discovered a woman's body in the trunk of his car in western Virginia, authorities said.

WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Va., reported Sunday that Clifton Forge, Va. police took into custody 19-year-old Enrico Luciano Mascaro on Friday night after he returned to his parked 1996 Mustang. When police later searched the trunk, they found the body of a woman.

Police in Kitty Hawk, N.C. had put out a nationwide alert for Mascaro and 18-year-old Danielle Dennis-Towne of Steger, Ill., after finding a crime scene. WAVY-TV reported that police used cellular phone towers to track the Mustang to a parking lot in Clifton Forge, where it was placed under surveillance.

The body was taken to the state medical examiner's office to determine the cause of death, according to The Roanoke Times. The newspaper reported that Clifton Forge police chief Barry Balser has not released the female victim's name. Balser did not return a call late Sunday from The Associated Press.

Kitty Hawk Police Chief David R. Ward told the AP early Monday that Mascaro has been charged with homicide in that coastal town.

Mascaro was being held in the Alleghany County regional jail on a fugitive-from-justice charge, a jail official said early Monday. The Nags Head, N.C. man was expected to be arraigned Monday and extradited back to Kitty Hawk.

[Associated Press]

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