COLUMBUS – A 42-year-old man has been charged with the murder of a man whose body was found at the suspect’s residence last month when authorities responded to a report of a fire.
Rickey Lee Skinner, who was also injured in the incident, is still recovering in the hospital but will be arrested when he has recovered on a charge of murder in the death of Joseph McDowell, who was found in a burning structure outside Skinner’s home on Southard Drive on March 28, homicide unit Sgt. Dave Sicilian said.
Police officers and fire personnel who responded to a report of a man “on fire” at the home found Skinner, 42, and a woman in front of the home suffering from severe burns over “a significant portion of their bodies,” Sicilian said.
Authorities also found a building in the rear of the main residence which was fully engulfed in flames and found McDowell’s body inside the home, the victim of a homicide that was not related to the fire Sicilian said.