MADISON (WKOW) -- A Madison police official told 27 News officers had contact with a man before he was found dead in the back seat of a car on the city's east side.
The victim, Farrell Kurlish, 32, was found just before 6 p.m. Mar. 7 in the parked, running car on a residential street.
Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said officers responded to the man's east side home just past one a.m. Mar. 7 after receiving a report of a dispute between the man and his wife. DeSpain told 27 News no one was hurt in the home. DeSpain said the man volunteered to go with officers to an east side motel to diffuse the domestic situation.
DeSpain told 27 News officers sometimes resolve domestic disputes by offering to take one of the people to a motel, when an arrest is not called for.
DeSpain said the next contact between officers and the man was just past five p.m. Mar. 7, when authorities discovered the man without a pulse and not breathing in a car on Cumberland Lane. DeSpain said there were indications the car had a faulty exhaust system that contriibuted to what DeSpain termed an accidental death.
Neighbors told 27 News several people noticed the engine of the 1995 Hyundai Accent was running before police officers arrived.
Eastmorland neighborhood association president Kathy Soukup said a neighbor contacted authorities in the morning about the car's presence, but the neighbor did not know there was someone in the car.
911 Emergency Center officials said the call was placed to a non-emergency number at 9:57 a.m. A copy of the twenty-three second call was provided to 27 News. During the call, a neighbor mistakes the idling as from a pick-up truck, but tells the operator the idling had been taking place for a half hour.
"Is that legal?" The caller asks the operator. The operator indicated it was legal. The caller expressed aggravation, rather than concern over the situation. "Holy (expletive), what's this city coming to?"
Emergency Center interim director Kathy Krusiec told 27 News given the nature and content of the call, there was no reason to dispatch authorities to the scene of the car's idling. Krusiec said emergency personnel were dispatched after 5 p.m. when another caller described a motionless body being inside the car.
Dane County coroner John Stanley has not released the victim's approximate time of death.
Family members said Kurlish was a chef. Kurlish also worked on the delivery staff of an auto parts company several years ago.
