Henrico officials seek ID of body in shed fire

Investigators are trying to identify a body found in a fire yesterday morning inside a shed behind a home in a Henrico County subdivision near Woodman and Hungary roads.

Charred human remains were found inside the 8-foot-by10-foot wooden shed about 9:40 a.m. after Henrico County firefighters extinguished a blaze that consumed the structure in minutes. The husband of a woman who lived at the address in the 9500 block Nandina Drive returned to the couple's home yesterday morning to find the shed ablaze and his wife absent.

Neighbors identified the couple as Russell and Madeline Baughan.

Shortly before the fire began, a witness who was visiting a home behind the couple's house said she saw a woman open the doors to the shed and say that her hibachi grill was on fire.

"She opened one door first and then opened the other side," recalled Debbie Reid. "And when the fire rose up, the door fell off."

After flames began to engulf the shed, Reid said, she could no longer see the woman, and assumed she had gone back inside the house to call 911.

"It's really tearing me up right now" to know that she likely died in the blaze, Reid said.

Kitty Osmun, who lives across the street, called 911 after she and her husband saw flames shooting skyward from the back of their neighbor's house. "I told [emergency dispatchers] that I thought the house was on fire, please hurry!"

Osmun said she then called the Baughans but got no answer. She noticed their truck wasn't in the driveway.

Fire crews arrived within five minutes of the call to find the shed completely ablaze, said Henrico Fire Capt. Chris Buehren.

Russell Baughan drove up in couple's truck a few minutes later, finding his shed on fire and his wife missing, Osmun said.

For much of the morning, Baughan sat on the curb in front of his house as police and fire investigators picked through the rubble and interviewed his neighbors. He was too distraught to talk.

The victim's remains were sent to the state medical examiner for confirmation of identity and cause of death, Buehren said. The cause of the blaze hasn't been determined. Henrico police are handling the death investigation.

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or .