A worried neighbor entered the home of murder suspect Michael Osburn and found the 46-year-old man laying dead on the floor.

Dallas County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Osburn on Thursday, Dec. 10, and charged him with the first-degree murder of Harold Pitre, who was found charred beyond recognition in a vehicle fire in Burnsville on Tuesday, Dec. 8.

Osburn had been released from jail on a $15,000 bail.

“A neighbor went over to check on him and found Mr. Osburn laying on the floor. The body was pretty cold,” Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman said. “The coroner pronounced him dead at the scene.”

Huffman said his department called Alabama Criminal Investigations and the State Fire Marshall, who had also been working on the case.

Deputies secured the scene and began a death investigation.

“There were no visible signs of any blunt force trauma,” Huffman said. “He wasn’t shot, he wasn’t stabbed and he wasn’t strangled.”

The body has been taken to the state Department of Forensic Science in order to determine a cause of death.

“We are looking now at forensics as far as getting results,” Huffman said. “They are checking for an overdose, a heart attack or something like that.”

Osburn, who lived on Deer Road near Burnsville, became a murder suspect after Pitre’s body was found in the back seat of a burning car on Deer Road.

“A search warrant was executed at (Osburn’s) residence,” Huffman said last week. “Evidence that was found inside the residence and over the last two days of interviewing several individuals that have knowledge of the deceased and the suspect led us to arrest Mr. Osburn.”

Police have been unable to determine the cause of Petrie’s death because of the condition of the body.

“The body is burned up extremely bad,” Huffman said last week. “I don’t think the Department of Forensic Science is through. We’re still waiting on word as far as the actual cause of death.”

Osburn denied in any involvement in Petrie’s death.

“Mr. Osburn (was) denying everything,” he said.