LADUE -- Police tracking whoever burglarized a Ladue home Saturday night think they found their answer at the bottom of a rock quarry.

The body of a man was found at the Rock Hill Quarries with loot from the burglary: stolen jewelry in his pockets and a bag nearby containing electronic equipment from the Ladue home. He also had a flashlight.

Ladue police on Tuesday identified the dead man as Donald Zakrzewski, 42, of St. Louis.

Police surmise Zakrzewski had bolted from the home on Old Warson Road just before midnight Saturday, scaled an 8-foot-high chain-link fence surrounding the quarry, then ran through a heavily wooded area in the dark before plunging off the cliff.

"He was probably trying to escape the crime scene, running at full speed when he ran off the edge," said Ladue Police Chief Richard Wooten. "It's one of the most unusual cases in my 26 years here."

Zakrzewski had fallen 50 to 60 feet to his death. An autopsy determined that Zakrzewski died of trauma consistent with a fall from that height.

The Rock Hill Quarries, at 1233 N. Rock Hill Road, is a demolition landfill on about 70 acres. The quarry is west of McKnight Road and south of Tilles Park.

Employees of the quarry found Zakrzewski's body about 9 a.m. Monday as they were doing their normal work near a wall on the west end of the quarry, the deepest end.

Zakrzewski was wearing gloves, so fingerprints can't verify he was inside the Ladue home. And the homeowner didn't have a camera to record the bandit.

But police believe the items found in Zakrzewski's pockets and near his body are proof enough that he was the burglar. Police are now researching his criminal past and trying to determine if other burglaries in the area are the work of Zakrzewski as well.

Wooten said a homeowner in the 9700 block of Old Warson Road came home about 11:45 p.m. Saturday after dinner out with friends. The man lives just west of the western edge of the quarry.

The homeowner walked in the front door and heard noises, Wooten said.

"He calls out, 'Hey, who's there? and he hears someone leaving," Wooten said.

The burglar left in a hurry, on foot, the chief said.

Police called for a police dog to track the scent. They ended their search that night without finding the burglar.

Zakrzewski lived in the 200 block of Marceau Street in St. Louis, in the far southern tip of the Carondelet neighborhood.

Court records show that Zakrzewski has a history of peace disturbance, marijuana possession and misdemeanor assault. In 1986, he was charged with burglary in St. Louis County. In that case, he pleaded guilty of receiving stolen property and was fined $500.

Just this summer, the St. Louis collector of revenue's office filed suit against Zakrzewski for failure to pay property taxes, as the city had done at least two years previously. He was due in court for the most recent case on Oct. 31.

Zakrzewski was sentenced to five years in prison for eight counts of second-degree burglary, one count of receiving stolen property, one count of attempted second-degree burglary and three counts of stealing over $150.

All of those crimes happened in either St. Louis city or county, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

He was in a Missouri prison for two years, from 1987 to 1989. In 1990, he violated parole and returned to prison. He was released from prison again on Sept. 18, 1991, to be supervised by electronic monitoring. He completed his sentence on March 12, 1993.