A car crash left one person dead off the Merritt Parkway in Fairfield late Monday night, and it involved a vehicle police were already searching for.

Police say the same vehicle crashed into an off-duty state trooper's personal car on Ferry Boulevard near East Main Street in Stratford earlier. The driver allegedly refused to stop after the first crash, and the trooper called local police.

Then the car crashed again near Exit 46 on the southbound side around 11:30 p.m.

They finally found the vehicle after its driver tried to exit the parkway, ran off the road, slid down an embankment and slammed into a tree -- leaving the operator dead.

"The vehicle was not being followed or being pursued," says Sgt. Eric Haglund, of the state police. "And the vehicle traveled off the roadway there for unknown reasons, striking a tree."

Police did not immediately identify the driver. They say the car is owned by a rental agency out of Linden, New Jersey.