Somebody killed Ryan Barnaby, the 34-year-old man found near the duck pond in Edgewood Park night night, according to the state’s chief medical examiner.
Who was that somebody? Police are trying to find out. They don’t yet have leads.
Chief Medical Examiner H. Wayne Carver II ruled Wednesday that Barnaby was killed by a gunshot wound to the head, and that the manner of death was a homicide, a spokesperson from his office told the Independent Thursday.
Barnaby, of Waterbury, was found early Tuesday morning after neighbors reported seeing a man park his car and enter the park, and then hearing a shot was fired. Neighbors reported that at 9:30 Monday night. It wasn’t until over five hours later that police found a man dead from a gunshot wound.
“We are investigating it as a homicide. We don’t have any suspects right now,” Assistant Police Chief John Velleca said Thursday afternoon.
Until the medical examiner’s ruling, officials said they were unclear whether Barnaby’s death was a homicide or a suicide. Meanwhile, the Register’s William Kaempffer reported that police sources and Barnaby’s family were strongly suspecting a homicide.
Velleca said Thursday that a “totality” of factors led to the homicide determination.
One: No gun was found at the scene.
Two: “GSR” (gunshot residue) testing turned out no trace of a shot that Barnaby might have fired himself. (However, since it was raining during the hours Barnaby’s body lay undiscovered, that residue could have theoretically washed away.)
Finally, the medical examiner determined that that there was no “direct contact” between the gun and Barnaby’s head, Velleca said. That, too, leads to a suggestion that Barnaby didn’t fire the shot.
Barnaby had parked his car at Chapel and Boulevard before walking into the park, according to neighbors. His body was found about a quarter-mile down Chapel down an embankment by the park’s duck pond.
“He was only 25 feet from the sidewalk. But it’s an incline,” Velleca noted.
One witness told police that two women were seen in the car with Barnaby when he arrived. However, police have been unable to find the report or find the women, Velleca said.