A 24-year-old accused of running away from the scene of a crash days before he was found dead in a Gwinnett County lake might have been under the influence of alcohol the night of the wreck, police said.
The sheriff’s office found the body of Alec Davis on Monday in a neighborhood lake near Landover Crossing and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Channel 2 Action News reported.
The Suwanee Police Department said two people told officers about unrelated incidents involving Davis the night he reportedly ran away from the crash.
RELATED: Man who ran away from car crash 9 days ago found dead in Suwanee lake
A Suwanee officer was sent to the scene of the alleged hit-and-run at around 5:30 p.m. on May 5, according to an incident report obtained by AJC.com. A woman told the officer she was driving with her son on Arbor Crest Place when she saw a red Ford Ranger come around a curve quickly, drive over a sidewalk and hit a tree. The Ford then crashed into her Nissan Leaf, she told the officer.
The woman said the impact of the wreck caused the driver of the Ford, later identified as Davis, to bounce out of the drivers’ seat and land in the passenger seat.
Both drivers got out of their cars, and Davis told the woman he didn’t want to report the accident to police.
The woman said it would be best to call 911, and Davis “walked back to his truck and gathered a notepad and a clear bottle containing red liquid and then proceeded to walk in between two nearby houses,” the police report said.
Credit: WSB-TV
Credit: WSB-TV
Then, the woman said Davis took off running through the wood line and up a hill while she called police.
The officer searched the Ford, which was still blocking the roadway after the wreck. He said he found “a clear pint glass containing liquid residue with an odor of an alcoholic beverage.”
Mid-search, a man flagged down the officer and said the driver of the Ford had stolen his mailbox earlier that day. The man told the officer he was inside his home when he heard a loud noise. Then, a neighbor knocked on his door.
“(The neighbor) stated that a young white male driving a red Ford Ranger struck (the man’s) mailbox, threw it in his truck, and left the scene,” according to an incident report. The neighbor told the man he believed the driver of the Ford lived in the neighborhood.
A search for Davis ensued. Officers took a police dog to the wood line in an attempt to find the missing man, the police report said. A dog picked up Davis’ scent going up the hill, but lost it shortly after.
As the officers tried to follow the man’s trail, a sergeant on the case received a voice mail from Davis’ father, who said he was on his way to a bar on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard to pick up his son when he saw the Ford being towed.
“(Davis’ father) advised he was calling to make sure that his son was OK, and that Mr. Davis was a recovering addict,” the incident report said.
Officers searched the bar but did not find Davis.
Nine days later, authorities found Davis’ body in the lake.
It’s unclear what happened between the time he ran away from the crash site and his death.
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