Francisco Aguirre Remains Found in Connecticut - Autopsy Inconclusive

[The Kitchen Guy]

Autopsy Results Inconclusive

By ALAINE GRIFFIN | Courant Staff Writer
December 14, 2007

Link: The Hartford Courant

MIDDLETOWN — - An autopsy on the corpse of a city scrap metal worker whose burning body was found last summer near a Merritt Parkway exit ramp did not determine a cause of death, according to an official with the state medical examiner's office.

Firefighters found the body of Francisco Aguirre, 35, on June 27 near the Exit 29 northbound off-ramp in Greenwich after extinguishing a brush fire.

State police said Aguirre, a Middletown resident, had been reported missing but declined to say who made the report. They found Aguirre's sport utility vehicle about 50 miles away, in Hamden.

Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman, said Thursday that investigators are treating the death as suspicious, although it has not yet been categorized as a suicide or a homicide.

"Until we have information or evidence or even medical evidence that points us in another direction, we'll treat this as a suspicious death," Vance said.

Aguirre worked for Metal Management Inc., a national company that recycles metals and has offices in Hartford, North Haven and New Haven.

At the time of his death, he lived on Rose Circle in Middletown. Relatives said he was living in Connecticut because of his job at the scrap metal company, but planned to move to California, where his wife and daughter live.

Contact Alaine Griffin at agriffin@courant.com.