Police: No criminality in Threlkeld crash

There was no criminality involved in the crash that killed former CBS news correspondent Richard Threlkeld in Amagansett, East Hampton Town police Chief Edward V. Ecker Jr. said Saturday.

Threlkeld's 2008 Mini Cooper collided Friday morning with a propane tanker truck, at Cross Highway and Route 27.

Ecker said the investigation is ongoing, and police are seeking video from nearby shopping centers that might shed light on the cause of the crash.

The investigation so far indicates that Threlkeld, 74, of East Hampton, was "at or near the middle of the intersection," which is controlled by a four-way signal, Ecker said. The Mini Cooper was going north on Cross Highway, and the propane tanker truck was heading east on Route 27.

The truck driver, Earl Fryberger Jr., 57, of Coatesville, Pa., was not hurt, police said.

Threlkeld was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital. Autopsy results weren't available Saturday and toxicology tests won't be back for several weeks, Ecker said.

Threlkeld's wife, Betsy Aaron, a former network news correspondent, said her husband left their Robins Way home to go to Brent's General Store on Montauk Highway to buy a Danish and newspapers.

Dave Winthrop, general manager of the store, said Threlkeld, who stopped in a few times a month, left the store shortly after 8 a.m., minutes before the crash.

Aaron said a memorial service will be held in New York City, but no date was chosen.

For 25 years, Threlkeld worked for CBS News, interrupted by a stint at ABC. He covered the Vietnam War and was a correspondent in Moscow when the Soviet Union fell in the 1990s. He was a regular contributor to the "CBS Evening News" and CBS' "Sunday Morning."

Threlkeld was born in Iowa and raised in Burlington, Ill. He earned a bachelor's in political science and history from Ripon College in Wisconsin and a master's in journalism from Northwestern University.

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He joined CBS News in 1966 and retired 32 years later, returning briefly in 2004 to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of "Sunday Morning."

Besides his wife, Threlkeld is survived by a brother, Robert, of Port Townsend, Wash.; two children, Susan Paulukonis of Alameda, Calif., and Julia Threlkeld of Yonkers; and two grandchildren.