Charred Body Found in Car of Missing Bank Employee

A charred body was discovered Sunday inside a vehicle driven by an automated teller machine technician who has been missing since Friday, authorities said.

Because the body was badly burned, police could not positively identify it as that of Robert T. Walsh, 59, who was in an unmarked Wells Fargo company car when he vanished in Orange while servicing ATM machines with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Police and firefighters found the 1993 Ford Escort ablaze in an alley behind a strip mall after receiving a call about an explosion and fire.

Flammable liquid was apparently used to start the fire, said Orange Police Lt. Timm Browne.

Witnesses told police that they saw a white male about 50 years old, with gray hair and glasses, running from the Ford about the time it caught fire. Witnesses said the man, described as 5 feet 10 to 5 feet 11 inches tall and about 180 pounds, dashed into a car being driven away, police said.

Although police are searching for the man, they are not calling him a suspect. They also are continuing to search for Walsh, a former Fullerton police officer, described as white, 5 feet 11 inches tall, 175 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes. He was least seen wearing a blue Wells Fargo uniform.

“I don’t want to give anybody the impression that we’re going to give up on finding Mr. Walsh,” Browne said. “We’ll look until the body is identified.”

Police would not detail Walsh’s job at Wells Fargo because they said it might pose a danger to other employees. Bank officials would not comment about the case.