Body amid recycling was St. Paul man missing from car crash

St. Paul police say 24-year-old Justin Anthony Teigen of St. Paul fled police after a traffic stop, crashed his car and then crawled into a Dumpster early Wednesday morning and died.

His body was discovered amid recyclable refuse about six hours later by workers at the Allied Waste Recycling facility in Inver Grove Heights.

Sgt. Paul Schnell of the St. Paul police said it's still uncertain what exactly caused Teigen's death, but it is not being investigated as a homicide.

"It's suspected that injury played some level of involvement from the crash," Schnell said.

About 9 a.m. Wednesday, Inver Grove Heights police were called to the recycling facility and soon determined that the garbage truck Teigen's body arrived in had been picking up recycling along University Avenue in St. Paul.

When St. Paul police got involved, they discovered that Teigen had been stopped in a parking lot near Snelling and University avenues for reckless driving shortly before 3 a.m.

He fled, Schnell said, and his car crashed into a pillar in the 1400 block of West University Avenue. His two passengers were taken to Regions Hospital with serious injuries.

But Teigen ran south on Pascal Avenue and officers were unable to find him.

A surveillance video from a business in the 1400 block of University Avenue shows a man, believed to be Teigen, climbing into a Dumpster shortly after the time of the crash.

St. Paul police are also trying to determine who owned a gun and drugs found in Teigen's car.

KATIE HUMPHREY