Chilling secret
A snowbound car found parked on a Queens street yesterday hid a grim secret inside — the body of a troubled man who fatally shot himself last week, authorities said.
The suicide of Kevin Ronan, 36, went undetected for so long apparently because the snow had piled high around his vehicle, leaving him hidden from view.
Authorities believe that the body had been there for about seven days, a police source said.
Ronan’s brother — who lives down the block from where the car was found — unwittingly stumbled on the vehicle walking home at around 12:30 a.m. yesterday, police sources said.
He thought he recognized the car, parked at the corner of 162nd Street and Laburnum Avenue in Flushing, as his brother’s and went to investigate, the sources said. That’s when he made the gruesome discovery.
Ronan’s body was slumped in the driver’s-side seat of the vehicle with the shotgun next to it.
He killed himself with a single gunshot wound to the head.
The last time the family saw Ronan was Tuesday, Jan. 25, after he stormed out of his relatives’ home in Suffolk County, threatening to kill himself, sources said. He was reported missing to police that same day.
Law-enforcement sources said they believe that Ronan then drove directly from the home to the Queens street and killed himself.
The tragic victim had a history of alcohol, drug and mental problems, police sources said.
“He was sick. We had him here. We tried to help him,” said a stricken Queens man who identified himself only as Ronan’s uncle.
The medical examiner had yet to officially determine when Ronan died, but it appeared clear that it was before the 19-inch snowstorm that walloped a week ago.
A resident who lives across the street from where Ronan’s car was parked said the snow was piled so high, he couldn’t even determine the make of the vehicle. Records show Ronan has a 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix.
The man, who asked not to be identified, said he had been planning to dig out his own car — which was parked behind Ronan’s yesterday — “but my wife took my shovel.”
“Otherwise, I would have gotten my car out, and I probably would have found him,” the man said. “But I’m glad I didn’t.”
Additional reporting by Larry Celona
