CLEARFIELD – The trial for a 43-year-old Clearfield man accused of hitting a woman and leaving her body near a downtown Clearfield Dumpster will not move forward. A report Monday morning confirms that the man died.
The date and cause of the death of Joseph “Mike” Colavecchi will be determined through an autopsy, according to the Clearfield County District Attorney’s office. Such a procedure, according to the office, is standard to determine the cause of death.
Colavecchi was recently found not guilty of driving under the influence of methadone, a treatment he was receiving at Discovery House in Pike Township so that he could stop using drugs. In that case, Colavecchi was driving down Turnpike Avenue in Clearfield Borough when he said he began to “daydream.” He previously told investigating officers that a child on a bicycle rode in front of him, causing the January 2005 accident.
He was set to go on trial for another case, for the alleged assault charge.
The aggravated assault case happened sometime between July 29-30. Court documents show that officers were dispatched to the rear of Moena’s Restaurant in downtown Clearfield in the early-morning hours of July 30. When police arrived, they discovered a Clearfield woman on the ground next to a Dumpster. The woman was unresponsive but did survive the incident. She required hospitalization.
In the alleged assault incident, Colavecchi told investigating officers two conflicting stories. The first was that he found the woman on the ground and called for police. In the second story, the woman was allegedly in his hair salon on East Market Street in Clearfield and then she fell, hitting her head. He said that he wheeled the woman’s body outside because he was afraid someone would find her passed out.
Colavecchi pled guilty in another DUI-methadone case. Police reported that Colavecchi hit a Spruce Street garage on May 26, 2005. During the incident, he nearly hit a young girl, according to court documents. After the hit-and-run, reports show that Colavecchi was involved in a one-vehicle accident in front of McDonald’s on state Route 879.
Toxicology testing is being done on Colavecchi as a way to determine the cause of his death. Such tests determine whether chemicals were present in a body at the time of death and how much of such chemicals.
Those results will take several weeks to be returned to the Clearfield County Coroner.
Colavecchi posted bail on the assault charge case June 22. He was out of jail at the time of his death.