WSP Lighting tech found dead

[Esau]

Lighting technician found dead after ACL

Updated: 9/29/2005 9:41 PM

By: James Keith

Dino DeRose has been missing since Sunday.

The Georgia man is the lighting director for the band Widespread Panic.

The group was in town for the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

"His wife had talked to him last, he was on his way to go eat at Wendy's," his friend Shane Breen said.

That was Sunday. On Monday, he was no where to be found.

"When everybody else checked out and he wasn't there to check out, that's when they knew was something wrong," Breen said.

On Thursday Austin police found a body along Interstate 35 near William Cannon.

"They were looking for something else and spotted the body laying on the grass,' Det. Mark Breckenridge of the Austin Police Department.

Dino DeRose was a rock 'n' roll concert lighting guru.

The family says police notified them, saying the body was DeRose's.

The Austin Police Department has not confirmed, to the media, the body found was DeRose. They cannot release that information until the medical examiner's office concludes its investigation.

"The body appears to have been here four or five days. Evidence leads us to believe it's an auto-pedestrian incident," Breckenridge said.

"It's devastating. Dino is a legend, a good friend, who'd do anything for you, if you call him at 2 a.m. He's right there for you. Just a great guy all around," Breen said.

DeRose had an extensive career in musical lighting.

He's worked with Kiss, Eric Clapton, Megadeath and Earth, Wind & Fire, to name a few.

His life is something his family and the music industry will surely miss.

"He was here in my living room two weeks ago. It's just devastating," Breen said.

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