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A truly strange murder case sprouted along I-95 yesterday when rescuers — who had just saved a man and a boy suffering from chemical fume exposure in a pesticide truck — found a corpse in a bag stuffed between containers of hazardous chemicals in the back.
The truck belongs to a company called C & J Pest Control, which is based out of a house in Westwood Lakes. Police — who are treating the case as a homicide — rushed to the home last night.
The story began around 7 a.m. yesterday when a Road Ranger in West Palm noticed a maroon pickup truck stopped on a shoulder near Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.
Police and firefighters found two seriously ill passengers inside: 53-year-old George Barahona and 10-year-old Victor Vocter, who was suffering from seizures.The fumes were so strong on the scene that four firefighters had to be treated for exposure, says Chase Scott, a West Palm Beach PD spokesman.
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So Environmental Protection specialists arrived to deal with the chemicals. They spent most of the day disposing of open containers of acid and other deadly compounds, until just after 5 p.m. That’s when they found the body.
“It’s not pretty inside the truck,” Scott told the Palm Beach Post.
Rush hour traffic slowed to a crawl as detectives from West Palm and Miami and FBI agents surrounded the scene.
C & J Pest Control, the company that owns the truck, is based out of a home on SW 47th Terrace near the Turnpike. Riptide tried a number listed for the company this morning, but the line has been disconnected.
As for Barahona and Vocter, both were in serious condition at a Palm Beach hospital as of last night.
“At last report, the man and the child were both in very serious condition,” Scott tells WPTV.
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