Pine Bluff, Ark. — The body of a man was found in a burning car at Graceland Cemetery on Sunday, where he and his wife had gone to visit his mother-in-law's grave, police said. Firefighters received a call to the cemetery at 4:08 p.m., found the car on fire, put out the blaze and recovered the body, said Sgt. Robert D. Rawlinson, a spokesman for the Pine Bluff Police Department.
R.V. Davis, 78, was pronounced dead at 5:02 p.m. by the Jefferson County Deputy Coroner Chad Kelly.
Davis' wife, Joy Davis, told investigators she and her husband went to the cemetery to visit her mother's grave. She said she was at the grave when she heard her husband hollering. She returned to the car and found it on fire, but neither she nor a bystander could get her husband out. She told police her husband was on fire.
Joy Davis, who is elderly andfrail, said her husband had stayed in the car because he was in poor health and couldn't get out without assistance.
Police did not know what caused the fire.
Police are investigating the murder of a man found shot to death in a burning car early Wednesday in the 500 block of North 24th Street in East St. Louis. c St. Clair County Coroner Rick Stone identified the victim as Terrance Billops, 35, of Washington Park. Billops was found about 2 a.m., slumped in a burning 1997 Oldsmobile Achieva.
Stone said Billops was pronounced dead at the scene, but when his body was examined at Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital in East St. Louis it was discovered he had been shot in the head.