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Body In Canal Is Man Who Ran From Crash

Updated 07/05/11 - 5:24 p.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The body of a man found on the Southwest Side Monday morning is the same man spotted running from the scene of a fatal crash early Thursday, police said.

The man -- identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office as 23-year-old Marcus Durdin -- was found about 11:30 a.m. Monday in the 4000 block of South Cicero Avenue, police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan said.

That is the same block where a 2004 Ford Taurus struck a bridge that crosses the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal at 2:23 a.m. Thursday.

A Cook County Medical Examiner's office spokesman said Durdin, of the 1600 block of South St. Louis Avenue, was pulled from the water in the canal. He was pronounced dead at 12:55 p.m. Monday.

An autopsy performed Tuesday found that Durin died from multiple injuries from the crash and his death was ruled an accident.

When officers arrived on the scene Thursday, they found the car flipped upside down and resting between the main section of the bridge and the railing, police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.

Pipers Wells, 33, of the 1000 block of North Massasoit Avenue, was dead on the scene, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

It was not immediately known if Wells was a passenger in or the driver of the Taurus, Mirabelli said. But witnesses reported seeing a man running from the wreckage.

The police Major Accident Investigation Unit was investigating whether Durdin was the man spotted running from the fatal crash.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.

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