Authorities: El Jebel death isn’t suspicious

The person found dead in a parked car in El Jebel on Tuesday morning was identified as Theodore Joseph Krest Jr.

Eagle County Coroner Kara Bettis said Krest was 72 years of age with a most recent address in Glenwood Springs. He died of suffocation and the death was ruled a suicide, she said.

There was nothing suspicious about the death, the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, “and we are not looking for any suspects.”

Sheriff’s deputies, Basalt Police officers and an ambulance crew were called to the parking lot at 10:52 a.m. on a call that a woman was discovered in the vehicle with a bag over her head, according to authorities. Bettis said that initial report was wrong. Krest was in a red Subaru wagon parked on the west end of the lot. The first law enforcement officers to respond told the ambulance crew they wouldn’t be needed.

The site was secured with yellow police tape and vehicles using the parking lot were diverted to one entry and exit. Investigators with the Sheriff’s Office were checking out the car into the afternoon. The investigation captured a lot of attention because so many people were walking their dogs or otherwise enjoying adjacent Crown Mountain Park.