COLUMBUS – Police have identified a body found inside a burning South Side home Tuesday morning as that of an 81-year-old man but still have not named any suspects or motive in the killing.
Detectives say Joseph McDowell was the victim of a homicide unrelated to the fire at the home on Southard Avenue, which also left a man and woman badly injured.
Officers and fire personnel responding to a report of a “man on fire” in the 200 block of Southard Drive at approximately 10:29 a.m. found Ricky Skinner and Jamie Raines in front of the home, both suffering from severe burns over much of their bodies, homicide unit Sgt. Dave Sicilian said.
Skinner, 42, and Raines, 40, were taken to O.S.U. Medical Center with life threatening injuries, he said.
As officers and fire personnel checked the home for additional victims they found McDowell’s body whose is being investigated as a homicide unrelated to the fire, Sicilian said.