Farmworkers discover burned body inside Fresno County trailer, deputies say
Farmworkers in Fresno County discovered a burned travel trailer early Saturday morning that had a dead man inside.
Fresno County Sheriff’s Lt. Shawn Erwin said the workers called the Sheriff’s Office around 5:22 a.m. to report the burned trailer, at the intersection of Trinity and Belmont avenues northwest of Kerman.
The fire had already extinguished by the time deputies arrived. Fire crews still responded, but were unable to determine a cause of the fire.
Erwin said deputies on scene confirmed that a dead man was inside the trailer. “Some time during the night the trailer caught fire and that person died in the fire,” he said.
The coroner’s office will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of the man’s death.
So far, the man has not been identified. Erwin added that it will take some time because the body was severely damaged from the fire.
The trailer is located on a private farm property, according to Erwin. Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti said that the property owner told the sheriff’s office that a homeless man was known to frequent the property. Botti also said the entire incident appears accidental.
This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 3:41 PM.
