The body found inside a burning car at a Gwinnett County park early Friday has been identified as a former Tucker High School student.
Ted Bailey, the chief investigator for the Gwinnett medical examiner's office, told the AJC Saturday that the body had been identified as 18-year-old Andrea Eleni Nassos of Stone Mountain.
According to school officials, she attended Tucker High in grades 9 through 11, but had transferred to a private school for her senior year. She was on the tennis team while at Tucker.
The teen's father, Pete Nassos, told Channel 2 Action News that the last time he spoke to his daughter was about 6 p.m. on Thursday. He said she was on her way to work, but never showed up.
He described his daughter, an honor student at Faith Academy, as "very independent and aggressive."
Bailey said he could not yet release information on how the teen died.
Gwinnett police Cpl. Edwin Ritter said that just after 5 a.m., an officer was doing a routine patrol of Lucky Shoals Park off Britt Road near Tucker, and “as he was driving through the park, he noticed a car in the back of the parking lot, smoldering.”
When firefighters arrived, they found the young woman's body inside the car.
Gwinnett fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge told the AJC that the vehicle, which appeared from aerial shots to be a four-door sedan, “is pretty much charred. It’s completely burned.”
Ritter said the death was being investigated as a homicide.
Leonard Millsaps, who lives nearby, said he frequently runs on a trail in the park.
“A body in a burned car implies a lot of stuff,” Millsaps said. “I usually feel safe running through there, but now I wonder.”
He said the park is “supposedly closed after dusk, but I’m not sure how well that’s monitored.”
He said he had not noticed any suspicious activity in the park.
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