Body Found Burned, Beheaded Identified as Sex Offender

FOXNews.com - Body Found Burned, Beheaded Identified as Sex Offender

Residents along a cul-de-sac told police they saw a small fire near the spot where the burned and beheaded body of a convicted sex offender was found. Police said the fire was seen Wednesday night near Hidden Ridge Drive about 20 miles northwest of Detroit in Northville Township, the Detroit Free Press reported Thursday. The body of Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen, 26, of River Rouge, was found about 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the end of the cul-de-sac by a township sewer and water department crew, according to the Free Press and The Detroit News. He was identified by the Michigan State Police through a fingerprint taken from his burned hand. The print also revealed Sorensen had been a registered sex offender in Illinois. Sorensen's head has not been found and a cause of death has not been released.

The criminal sexual conduct charge stemmed from a relationship the younger Sorenson had had with an underage girl, his father said.

Update - Autopsy Conducted in Beheading Death of Sex Offender

An autopsy was being conducted Friday morning on a beheaded, burned corpse found on a cul-de-sac about 20 miles northwest of Detroit and identified as a 26-year-old convicted sex offender.

Police are searching for a burgundy Chevy S-10 pickup truck belonging to the victim, Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen, 26, of River Rouge, Mich., after state police used fingerprints to identify the body.

"We believe it's an isolated incident," said Det. Lt. Michael Wildt of Northville Township Police. "We have to find out who did it, why and where did it happen. This is where we found the body, but we don't believe the person was murdered there."

Sorensen had been convicted of the criminal sexual abuse of a teen between the age of 13 and 17 in Tazewell County, Ill., according to that state's sex offender registry. But investigators weren't sure if that had anything to do with his brutal death.

"As of right now we don't have anything that says it is; we don't have anything that says it isn't," Wildt said. "We don't know."

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