KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, police said Monday they are investigating a man’s death as a homicide after his body was found following a fire at a Northland home on Sunday afternoon.
A police spokesman said Tuesday that Colton Stock, 30, was considered a person of interest in the homicide.
Stock was charged Monday with first-degree assault, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon in connection with an assault that took place at the home. That incident was separate from the homicide, police said.
The homicide victim was identified Friday as Matthew Calkins, 35, of Gardner, Kansas.
No cause of death has been released, but charges in the case are expected next week, according to KCPD.
Police cordoned off the home in the 5600 block of North Poe Street on Monday, searching for clues on what led to his death.
KCPD officers responded to the home around 5 p.m. Sunday on a report of gunfire and saw a fire in the basement of the home. The Kansas City Fire Department then responded to the blaze and made the gruesome discovery.
“Did I hear you correct, you have a body?" a fire investigator said in dispatch transmissions recorded on Broadcastify.com.
"That’s affirmative. We got a deceased person on fire," a firefighter responded.
James Matthys, who lives nearby, said that he heard a single gunshot, which startled him and his wife.
"You know it’s just like something might have fell off, it was a smack," he said, describing the sound.
Matthys said the man’s death has made some uneasy on the close-knit block.
"That’s too close to home,” Matthys said. “We just don’t have things like that happen around here, you know.”
