By By Lisa Tindell – news writer
A mystery that began on Friday afternoon in downtown Brewton has been partially solved.
Just after 2 p.m. Friday, a collision involving a CSX train engine and a white van, snarled traffic for more than an hour.
Just after 11 p.m., law enforcement officials were on hand at the boat ramp of the Conecuh River landing in Riverview as a white van was pulled from the murky waters.
Brewton Police officers responded to the initial accident downtown and seemed perplexed that the van would simply drive away from the scene of such an accident.
The CSX engineer said at the time of the incident that he saw the van spin in the street but it had disappeared by the time he was able to bring the train to a stop.
It appears the majority of the case now rests in the hands of the East Brewton Police Department.
At about 9:30 p.m. Friday, the van's owner, Richard Dinkins, told East Brewton poice the vehicle had been stolen. In the police report.
Dinkins said his brother, Charles Dinkins, was planning to buy the van but instead decided to return it.
Charles told his brother in a phone call at noon on Friday he would leave the vehicle, with the key inside, in the parking lot of the Superfoods grocery store in East Brewton. When Richard Dinkins went to the parking lot about 5 p.m., he was unable to locate the van.
Dinkins said he had not heard from his brother since the phone call at noon that day, according to the report.
The incident involving the stolen vehicle remains under investigation by the East Brewton Police Department and the Escambia County Sheriffs Department.
No arrests have been made in the case.