Burned Body Found In Mayes County Investigated As Suspicious Death

Mayes County deputies are investigating a body found inside a burning car.

They are waiting to hear from the medical examiner how the person officially died.

It happened south of Choteau.

Deputies said they're following several leads.

Investigators from Mayes County, the State Fire Marshal's office and OSBI are working the case as a suspicious death.

The car is a 1993 Cadillac.

Investigators are working to confirm whether the owner was the one inside the car.

They said the fire burned hot and fast, and in addition to nearly destroying the entire car, it also caught the grass on fire.

They said the person inside has a damaged skull, but, investigators don't know if the damage was caused by the heat of the fire or something like a bullet.

That is for the medical examiner to determine.

"We're interviewing all the neighbors around here. We've stopped nearly every car that came by this morning, to see if anybody has seen anything last night or heard anything. We're following quite a few leads and being as thorough as we can," said Mayes County Sheriff Mike Reed.

Once they get the victim identified and a cause of death, they'll know more, but right now they are not ruling out any possibility and are asking citizens in the Choteau area for help.

"If they heard anything or saw anything last night that seemed kinda odd, just call the sheriff's department, we'll run down each and every lead possible out there," Reed said.