Death of Fairbanks man in crashed car draws suspicion

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – Alaska State Troopers are reviewing the death of a 56-year-old Fairbanks man whom they initially thought had been killed in a traffic crash.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports troopers are trying to figure out if Jose Santiago’s death is a connected to a rolled-up piece of carpeting that was dragged by his car on the night he died.

Security camera footage Nov. 21 shows Santiago’s white Volvo station wagon dragging the rolled-up carpet toward a busy street in north Fairbanks.

Just after 7 p.m., troopers found Santiago dead in the car on a rural road west of Fairbanks.

A trooper announcement that night said the Volvo drove down an embankment and crashed into an elevated driveway. The announcement said Santiago had been ejected into the passenger’s side floor board.

Information from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, http://www.newsminer.com