The body of Thomas Haskins was a day away from being cremated – and his closest kin didn’t even know he was dead.Police are investigating the death of a man found unresponsive on the steps of a vacant duplex Thursday near downtown Warsaw.
A neighbor called police about 7:30 p.m. and asked them to check on the man, according to the Warsaw Police Department.
Officers went to the duplex at 228 N. Fort Wayne Ave. and found the unresponsive man, identified as 56-year-old Randall Jones, police said.
Jones, a Warsaw resident, was about 2 miles from his home. Medics took him to Kosciusko Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police said Frankie Lee Poe, 40, of Warsaw is a “person of interest” in Jones’ death. Police jailed Poe early Friday on a preliminary charge of residential entry to the vacant duplex. He was being held without bail at the Kosciusko County Jail. Police declined to release further information.
Kosciusko County Coroner Michael Wilson said he was waiting on autopsy results and that he could not yet say how Jones died or whether foul play was suspected. He expected results would be released Monday.
Wilson said police were still conducting interviews. “It’s a continuing investigation, and we’re still looking at all aspects,” he said.
The coroner said Jones’ death is not related to the death of a 51-year-old man found Sunday in a mobile home south of Warsaw. In that case, the man’s roommate was arrested on a murder charge after admitting to strangling him with a cord until he was unconscious and not breathing, the sheriff’s department said.
Homicides are not common in Kosciusko County, which had a total of two in 2012, Wilson said.
