In Lansdowne, an apparent murder mystery

Editor's note: This story has been updated from an earlier version

JESSICA PERRONE was watching TV early Sunday when she heard a banging noise, then four or five gunshots outside her Lansdowne home.

She rushed to her window and saw the first clue to what would become a murder mystery: a vehicle "driving all crazy" on the back lawn of the house across the alley, she said.

"It was like it was going wild," said Perrone, 25. She ran outside and saw the vehicle slam into the attached garage of the other house, then burst into flames. Perrone heard popping noises, and saw the flames ignite the garage and the smoke make its way up the back of her neighbor's house. It was about 1:25 a.m., and she called 9-1-1.

Standing in the back alley Sunday afternoon, Perrone looked at the damaged garage, parts of it in piles of brick, wood and stucco. Black soot darkened the back of the white-stucco house. Yellow crime-scene tape surrounded the back lawn.

The vehicle appeared to have first crashed through the house's back wooden fence before slamming into the garage.

Lansdowne Police Chief Dan Kortan emailed the Daily News Sunday that cops had first been dispatched to the house, on Maple Avenue near Midway, "for shots fired and a vehicle into a garage." Police found the male driver dead in the vehicle, which was severely burned.

Kortan said Monday that the vehicle was a Ford Edge, not a pickup truck as Perrone had described to reporters. He said New York license plates were found near the car and could have come off it during the crash.

The man has been identified but his name was not being released pending family notification, Kortan said.

Police said that no one in the house was injured.

Kortan told the Delaware County Daily Times on Sunday, "We believe the driver was shot and that caused the crash."

The Daily Times reported that the driver was a man who appeared to have been shot in the chest and that he was burned beyond recognition.

A man who lives at the house on Maple Avenue, where the vehicle crashed, declined to comment to the Daily News.

Lansdowne Fire Marshal Tom Young, who was examining the back of the house Sunday afternoon with other investigators, said the homeowner didn't know the driver.

Neighbor Ivane Rosembert, 21, said the homeowner lives there with his wife and five kids. n

Contact Julie Shaw at 215-854-2592 or shawj@phillynews.com.