MAXTON — Investigators have identified the person whose body was found Wednesday in a burned-out vehicle as a Maxton man, but still are trying to determine the cause of the man’s death.
The deceased is 47-year-old Jimmy Ray Oxendine, according to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office. An autopsy was performed by the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh. The preliminary results released Friday indicate Oxendine did not die of a gunshot, stabbing or an assault.
The Sheriff’s Office will receive the results of the toxicology report in a matter of weeks, Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said Friday. The report is expected to help determine what might have killed Oxendine.
The Sheriff’s Office’s Homicide and Arson divisions are leading the investigation, which was helped initially by Robeson County Emergency Management.
“The investigators have conducted several interviews and obtained surveillance footage that traced Oxendine’s locations throughout the night and morning of his death,” a Sheriff’s Office statement reads in part.
Deputies responded about 8:32 a.m. Wednesday to a call about a burning vehicle with a body inside on the 300 block of Greely Road in Maxton, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office has not identified the type of vehicle.
Anyone with information should call the Sheriff’s Office at 910-671-3170 or 910-671-3100.
