Family wants answers as deputies ID man killed in car explosion
BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Eight days after a car explosion and fire killed a man, police on Wednesday confirmed for a Kentwood couple that it was their son.
The parents of 42-year-old Andy Geister Jr. said they still don’t know what happened and are left to wonder: Were the stories he told about people trying to kill him more than just a symptom of a recent mental illness?
Geister’s stepfather Richard Whitney, who helped raise him, said he was just blocks away from the explosion and fire that killed his stepson on Dec. 19.
Whitney was headed at the time to meet his stepson at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health in Cutlerville. He said he pulled over to let firefighters go by.
“And I seen the smoke on the road. I had no idea it was him,” Whitney said.
Deputies: Man dies in Byron Twp. car fire
Several hours later, deputies stopped at his house to ask if he owned a Jeep, the vehicle that exploded while driving down 68th Street near Clay Avenue SW in Byron Township, just blocks from Pine Rest. He said he had let his stepson borrow the 2000 Jeep Cherokee.
“They said it caught fire and the driver did not make it out of the vehicle and died at the scene,” Whitney said.
“From there on, it’s been nothing but questions. No answers, all questions,” he said. “I don’t know why it happened. Those things just don’t happen. It was my vehicle. I know it was in perfect condition.”
He later watched video of the explosion captured by a surveillance camera.
Kent County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Eric Brunner said detectives are waiting for lab results and haven’t determined a cause. They are working with the state police and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The sergeant said detectives do not believe it was suspicious, “in the line of what people may think of as a car bomb or a malicious type of act.”
Geister was a driver for Amazon. He lived with his parents and his 17-year-old son.
“He was determined that people were trying to kill him,” his mom Carole Whitney said. “He had some evidence. I don’t know what. But he was for sure that somebody was trying to kill him.”
He never said why or who.
“It was always ‘they,'” his stepfather said.
Geister had been treated as an outpatient at Pine Rest, though his parents didn’t know the diagnosis.
“There’s no reason for him not be here sitting right next to you right now,” his stepfather said. “No reason. There’s no reason for him not to be here, and they can’t tell us why he isn’t, and that’s what hurts; that’s what tears us apart.”
On Monday, the family celebrated Christmas without him.
“Christmas is a big deal for our family,” Richard Whitney said. “We’ve got five kids and 10 grandkids, and it’s a big deal, and it was not even close to being the same this year.
“The presents we had for him, we gave to his son.”
That includes a key chain to remember his mom, who is dying of lung cancer.
“This is my last Christmas,” his mom said.
The family has started a GoFundMe account to cover funeral arrangements and for the victim’s son, who is living with his grandparents.
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