Po­lice are prob­ing what they be­lieve is the mur­der of an 82-year-old pen­sion­er, whose body was burnt close to his home in Va­len­cia.

Of­fi­cers sus­pect the vic­tim may be James Le Carde of Alex­is Cir­cu­lar Plan­ta­tion Road.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said of­fi­cers re­ceived a call on Fri­day af­ter­noon alert­ing them to the body of a man be­ing burned at the lo­ca­tion.

When of­fi­cers ar­rived at the vic­tim’s house, they re­alised the house was ran­sacked and saw a trail of blood lead­ing ap­prox­i­mate­ly 40 feet away from the home to an open area.

The pen­sion­er was nowhere to be found and all ef­forts to con­tact him failed.

Up­on in­ves­ti­gat­ing, of­fi­cers saw tyres, char­coal and the burnt re­mains of a man.

They sus­pect it could be La Carde.

Of­fi­cers of the Arou­ca Homi­cide Bu­reau Re­gion II are con­tin­u­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

—Ralph Ban­warie