Crime & Safety
Police Identify Abandoned Gas Station Murder Victim
Gene Sitzmann, a 57-year-old Concord resident, was found dead early Tuesday in a station at Monument Boulevard and Detroit Avenue.
Concord police have identified a murder victim who was found dead in an abandoned gas station at 2491 Monument Blvd. on Tuesday as Gene Sitzmann, a 57-year-old Concord resident.
“Concord police detectives responded and initiated a murder investigation based on evidence at the scene and the nature of the victim’s injuries,” Lt. Garrett Voerge wrote in a news release Wednesday afternoon.
Police have not specified what the injuries were.
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Police ask anyone who saw suspicious activity near 2491 Monument Blvd. (at the corner of Detroit Avenue) over the Fourth of July weekend to call — see the phone numbers below.
“We’re talking to everybody in that area,” Voerge said Wednesday. “Everybody” in this case includes homeless people, some of whom were camped out inside the former Beacon station over the holiday weekend, Voerge said.
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Police are awaiting an autopsy report from the Coroner’s Division of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department to get a better idea of time and cause of death.
There was ragged bedding in a corner of the parking lot and within the garage bay of the former Beacon gas station. The coroner’s staff brought the body out from the former garage bay Tuesday.
Police responded to a call about a possible body at the station at 12:20 a.m. Tuesday. They arrived to find the victim dead inside the building, and detectives and crime scene investigators were called to the scene.
The station is surrounded by a fence but there is a hole in one place from which the homeless come and go.
The text of the Concord police press release Wednesday follows:
On 7/5/2011, at approximately 0020 hrs, Concord police officers responded an abandoned gas station at 2491 Monument Blvd. on the report of a dead body. Officers determined that the victim was obviously dead from his injuries. Concord police detectives responded and initiated a murder investigation based on evidence at the scene and the nature of the victim’s injuries. The victim has been positively identified as Gene Sitzmann, a 57-year-old Concord resident.
If anyone saw anything suspicious in or around 2491 Monument Blvd. over the 4th of July weekend, or has any other information regarding this case, please call Detective Pardella at 603-5922 or the TIP Line 800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477).
