Warrant: Firefighter came forward through lawyer after fatal crash

NORTH BRANFORD — A member of the Branford Fire Department informed police she may have fatally struck a pedestrian with her Jeep one day after the crash occurred in October 2021, according to a warrant for her arrest.

Amanda Mark, 36, was charged May 3 with evasion of responsibility in operation of a motor vehicle resulting in death in the Oct. 16, 2021, incident, according to police.

Mark, the Branford Fire Department’s first career female firefighter, was placed on administrative leave by the department following her arrest. She was serving as a deputy fire marshal.

According to the warrant for her arrest, Mark reached out to North Branford police through a lawyer on Oct. 17. Her lawyer told the chief of police they would cooperate with police, and handed over Mark’s Jeep to investigators the following morning.

During that meeting with police at her Killingworth residence, Mark provided police with a handwritten statement in which she said her car

“was struck by what I thought was an animal or trash container.”

She claimed to have stopped to examine the car, but finding some damage “but no blood,” she continued home. She wrote that she learned about the fatal crash later that afternoon, but that she “did know if there was a connection” between her experience and that crash.

North Branford police were called to Branford Road near Rose Orchards Farm around 6:15 a.m. on Oct. 16 for a man lying face-down in the road.

The man, later identified as 52-year-old Douglas Clark, a local resident, was found in the grass near a mailbox with his arms beneath his torso, according to the warrant. He was dead at the scene.

One of Clark’s boots had come off his foot in the crash, its metal toe becoming exposed, the warrant states. His phone, with wired headphones, also was found nearby.

Investigators later lifted a DNA sample from the hood of Mark’s car that was “100 billion times more likely” to be from Clark than from “any unknown person,” the warrant states.

Data from the Jeep’s infotainment system also showed Mark’s Jeep door “was opened in the area of where Douglas’ body was discovered,” the warrant states.

Fire officials told police that Mark had been offduty throughout the month of October — including at the time of the crash — because of a work-related injury, according to the warrant.

Police also learned that Mark had been with two other people at a restaurant in North Branford the night of the crash, according to the warrant. One woman who was with

Mark that night told investigators that Mark had not called or texted her to tell her she had been in a crash that night.

The woman told police she saw Mark at a fundraising event the following day. “During the event, some talk began to circulate regarding the fatal hit-and-run on Branford Road in North Branford the night prior (10/15/ 2021),” the warrant said. Shortly after, the woman “noticed Amanda became very quiet and then abruptly said she had to leave.

“Since then, she has only communicated briefly with Amanda, mostly about life activities, such as getting their nails done, etc. Again, she confirmed Amanda at no point revealed to her about any involvement with the accident,” the warrant states.