Body found in burning SC home now identified as man who may have lit fire to stay warm
A man found dead in a burning South Carolina home might have started the fire to stay warm, officials said.
Months after the January blaze, the man was identified this week as 33-year-old Dustin L. Nichols. He lived in Starr, roughly 40 miles southwest of Greenville.
“The victim was not identifiable during the initial investigation and suffered severe thermal injuries,” the Anderson County coroner’s office wrote.
But through DNA analysis, the S.C. Law Enforcement Division finally was able to identify Nichols, officials said on June 2.
His name was released months after the coroner’s office said firefighters were called to a burning home at about 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 16.
“The Anderson County Fire Department (Rock Springs District) responded to an abandon house and found the structure engulfed in flames, after extinguishing the fire (the) victim was located,” officials said. “Fire investigators believe the fire was started by the person attempting to stay warm, as the structure has no electricity.”
Around the time of the fire — which was reported along S.C. Highway 413 — minimum temperatures were in the 20s and 30s, according to the National Weather Service.
The day of the blaze, the coroner’s office shared that the person who died was likely a male but hadn’t been identified. Officials asked the public for help with determining who might have been at the home when it caught fire.
About a week later, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office shared that a man named Dustin L. Nichols had gone missing. Officials said he was last seen Jan. 15 in Anderson.
The coroner’s office said Nichols died from burns and carbon monoxide poisoning. It had finished its death investigation as of June 2.
This story was originally published June 3, 2022 at 6:23 AM with the headline "Body found in burning SC home now identified as man who may have lit fire to stay warm."
