T.O. Man found dead inside burning car




A Thousand Oaks man committed suicide Tuesday near Camarillo, authorities said.

Deputies found Bruce Czernek, 50, in a burning parked car at 1:30 a.m., Tues., Nov. 3 on Fifth Street, half a mile south of Pleasant Valley Road, in the county’s unincorporated area just outside Camarillo, said Sgt. Dave Murray of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Armando Chavez, Ventura County senior deputy medical examiner, said Czernek died from asphyxiation from smoke and carbon monoxide inhalation. Czernek’s death was determined to be a suicide, he said.

Murray said deputies suspected Czernek had committed suicide after finding a flammable substance in the truck.

The sheriff’s department had gone to Czernek’s Thousand Oaks home on Monday after receiving a call from one of his former coworkers who was concerned about his well-being. A mental health crisis team spent two hours performing “an indepth evaluation” on Czernek’s mental state but determined he wasn’t a danger to himself at the time, Murray said.

“Any time you have a free will and answer questions right . . . you can’t determine what the outcome will be, but we did everything by the numbers,” Murray said.

Czernek, who lived with his mother, was divorced and had no children, according to authorities.