Ladue police find answer to burglary at bottom of quarry

BY KIM BELL | Posted: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 12:30 am

LADUE • Police looking for whoever burglarized a Ladue home Saturday night think they found their answer at the bottom of a rock quarry.

A man's body was found Monday morning at the Rock Hill Quarries along with loot from the burglary: stolen jewelry in the victim's pockets and electronic equipment in a bag nearby. The man also had a flashlight and was wearing gloves.

On Tuesday, Ladue police identified the dead man as Donald Zakrzewski, 42, of St. Louis.

Police believe Zakrzewski was burglarizing a home in the 9700 block of Old Warson Road just before midnight Saturday when he was startled by the returning homeowner. The man walked in his front door and heard noises, Ladue Police Chief Richard Wooten said.

"He calls out, 'Hey, who's there?' and he hears someone leaving," Wooten said.

The burglar left in a hurry, on foot, the chief said. As best as police can tell, Zakrzewski scaled an 8-foot-high chain-link fence surrounding the quarry and ran through a heavily wooded area in the dark before plunging off the cliff.

"He was probably trying to escape the crime scene, running at full speed when he ran off the edge," Wooten said. "It's one of the most unusual cases in my 26 years here."

Zakrzewski fell 50 to 60 feet to his death. An autopsy determined that Zakrzewski died of trauma consistent with a fall from that height.

Police called for a police dog to track the scent, but they ended their search that night without finding the burglar.

Employees of Rock Hill Quarries, on about 70 acres west of McKnight Road and south of Tilles Park, found Zakrzewski's body about 9 a.m. Monday on the west end of the quarry — the deepest end. The old quarry is now used as a landfill for building and demolition waste.

Because Zakrzewski was wearing gloves, police can't use fingerprints to verify he was inside the Ladue home. And the homeowner didn't have a security camera to record the bandit.

But police believe the items found in Zakrzewski's pockets and near his body are proof enough that he was the burglar. Police are now researching his criminal past and trying to determine whether other burglaries in the area could be the work of Zakrzewski as well.

Court records show that Zakrzewski has a history of peace disturbance, marijuana possession and misdemeanor assault. In 1986, he was charged with burglary in St. Louis County. In that case, he pleaded guilty of receiving stolen property and was fined $500.

Zakrzewski was sentenced to five years in prison on eight counts of second-degree burglary, one count of receiving stolen property, one count of attempted second-degree burglary and three counts of stealing over $150.

All of those crimes happened in either St. Louis or St. Louis county, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

He was in a Missouri prison for two years, from 1987 to 1989. In 1990, he violated parole and returned to prison. He was released from prison again on Sept. 18, 1991, to be supervised by electronic monitoring. He completed his sentence on March 12, 1993.

Just this summer, the St. Louis collector of revenue filed suit against Zakrzewski for failure to pay property taxes, as the city had done at least two years previously. He was due in court for the most recent case on Oct. 31.

From: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_da077713-9ad8-5c3d-8352-df32d145b093.html