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as great father, quiet
AARGUERITE NICOSIA/Journal Staff
Fllithorpe's apartment at
ie -sac in the Syracuse sub-
tpkins County sheriff's offi-
pe was taken into custody.
itherwise, she said her tenant and
hbor was a nice guy who kept to
pelf.
Dan was such a quiet guy that
)dy around here probably even
v his name," she said, gesturing to
mall cul-de-sac of townhouses off
quiet street near the Erie Canal.
Car showed no damage
By KEVIN HARUN
Journal Staff
CLAY — The car police believe
struck and killed an Enfield resident as
he rode his bicycle to work early on the
morning of Feb. 4 showed no visible
collision damage in the days and weeks
after the accident, said the landlady
and neighbor of the suspect.
Debbie Schwerin said the car driven
by 22 -year-old Daniel Lee Ellithorpe
— a white 1987 Mercury Sable — was
often )larked in the driveway in front
of his townhouse, adjacent to hers, in
the town of Clay, just north of
Syracuse.
Aside from a hairline crack in the
front windshield, which was fixed
weeks ago, she said there was never
any 'visible damage beyond rust spots
common on a 11 -year-old car.
"I just can't believe that this is the
same vehicle that they're looking for,"
she said. "If it was damaged, I'm sure
we would have noticed it."
Police arrested Ellithorpe on
Wednesday in connection with the hit-
and-run killing of 50 -year-old Gregory
Kirchgessner in the Town of Enfield.
Schwerin also said the car was never
gone from the property for long. Police
alledged that the vehicle was fixed in
Syracuse and then driven to Florida
before it was returned to Clay.
But she said she did come home
one day to see the car — now in
police posses-
sion —with a
fresh coat of
white paint.
"He said he
was going to sell
it," she said. "It
looked practical-
ly new."
And a friend
of Ellithorpe
Schwenn who pulled into
his driveway on
Thursday — unaware that he had
been arrested and was in the
Tompkins County jail — said he
helped him bring the car to a friend's
garage nearby to be painted.
"But there was no work to be done
on it, no dents or anything," said his
friend, Nick Volcano of Liverpool.
That very night — two to three
weeks ago — Schwerin said a young
couple looked at the car and pur-
chased it.
Police
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■ Editorial, IIA
By KELLY A. ZITO
Journal Staff
ITHACA—Daniel Lee Ellithorpe,
the man police believe ran down
Gregory Kirchgessner as he rode his
bicycle to work Feb. 4, was arrested at
his residence outside Syracuse at 1
p.m. Wednesday.
Almost 24 hours later, Central New
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