Authorities still haven’t identified the victim of last Friday’s car fire in western Iowa, but employees of a hair salon in Urbandale think they know who it was. Co-workers of Jeff Van Ommen at Salon Studios in Urbandale held a memorial service for the man they say was the victim of “an unfortunate accident.”
The body of a man was recovered from a burned-out car just north of Interstate 80 in Audubon County off of the Wiota exit, after the fire was discovered and extinguished late last Friday night, December 15th. John Quinn, assistant Director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said authorities were using dental records and D-N-A to positively identify the body, but he would not speculate as to whether it was Van Ommen.
Quinn says a cause of death has not been determined, but the case has not been ruled suspicious. For right now, they?re calling it an “unattended death.” A ruling on whether foul play was involved will be determined through an autopsy and further investigation.