BRIGHTON, Colo.—A 78-year-old man found dead amid a suspicious house fire was “a nice guy who was always helping people,” his son said.
Bob Moreland of Brighton was pronounced dead early Sunday after firefighters found his body inside his burning home.
Authorities were investigating the death as a homicide and called the fire suspicious.
No one had been arrested, Adams County sheriff’s Sgt. Candi Baker said Monday.
Authorities had not disclosed the cause of death. Moreland’s son, Everett Moreland, said his father had trauma to his body and a hole in his head but that authorities weren’t sure if he had been shot.
“He was a nice guy who was always helping people,” Everett Moreland said. “I don’t know if that’s what got him.”
The son said that when he visited his father Thursday, three-down-on-their-luck guests were staying there—a woman in her 40s or 50s and two men in their 20s. His father told him the woman had lost her job, couldn’t afford rent and needed help.
Neighbor Lori Uhing said Bob Moreland was a generous man who would pay more than the asking price for eggs that her children sold from the chickens they raised.
Another neighbor, Joe Stone, said Moreland was still working years after most people retire.
“At his age, it was just go and go and go,” Stone said. “There’s not one thing bad I can say about that man.”
