HARTFORD — When police discovered a burned body inside a car parked at Hartford Point Cemetery, they began investigating the death as a possible homicide.
But a report from the medical examiner’s office and a search of the vehicle showed no indication that the 62-year-old Hartford resident, who police declined to name, had been murdered.
“At the time, we did not know as much as we do now,” said Lt. William Furnari, of the department’s community outreach division, on Monday.
On Sept. 9, local police and fire officials responded to a report of a car fire in the back of the Hartford Point Cemetery, located at 807 Maple Street.
Cemetery Sexton Ken Parker, a witness on the scene amid emergency response efforts that evening, told the Valley News that the subcompact car had been “totally burned out.”
“I observed what appeared to be a human body in the driver’s seat,” Special Investigator Eric Clifford wrote in a search warrant application, adding that a portion of the victim’s skull appeared to be missing.
Nearby witnesses had reported hearing gunshots. An outside inspection of the vehicle determined the victim had a wound to the head that appeared “consistent with a gunshot wound,” Clifford stated.
Hartford Police wrote that they had probable cause to believe firearms, ammunition or incendiary devices found inside the vehicle would constitute evidence of murder and arson.
“You’ll see the word murder in there because we’re going to investigate it as if it were a murder until the fact pattern leads us away from that,” Furnari said Monday by phone.
Conducting a search of the vehicle on the day of the fire, police found no evidence of murder or arson, only remains of the deceased individual, the return of the warrant states.
Police now believe that the perceived gunfire reported from the scene was, in reality, the sound of four tires exploding under the heat of the fire, said Furnari.
The department investigates all deaths as suspicious when a cause is unclear, he added. Police considered the victim to have a possible gunshot wound to the head, which prompted them to include it in the search warrant application, he said.
“There’s no indication of a gunshot wound to the body, to the head,” Furnari said of the evidence in this case.
A Friday news release confirmed the Hartford resident died of thermal injuries from the fire, per the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, but the manner of death remained under investigation.
As for the victim’s identity, Furnari believes the department has shared as much information as they ever will, which is limited to town of residence and age. The manner of death — categorized as natural, accident, suicide or homicide — may come back undetermined if there’s doubt, he said.
