FORT LORAMIE — The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) continues to investigate a mysterious death at Lake Loramie.

A park officer on Sunday, Nov. 15, found a car with a body in it. Both had been burned beyond recognition, according to Eric Heis, ODNR public information officer in Columbus.

“It’s still under investigation. They have not identified (the person) yet. The DNA report is not back yet. We don’t even know if it was a male or a female,” Heis told the Sidney Daily News Thursday.

The car, a Pontiac Grand Prix, was found at a park spoil site at the end of a gravel road near the terminus of Schmitmeyer-Baker Road, at 10:56 a.m., by a Department of Watercraft officer on routine patrol of the lake. A spoil site is used when the lake bottom is dredged. It’s where what has been dredged up gets dumped.

The gravel road is fenced off with a chain that had been locked across it since at least Nov. 12, according the Shelby County Coroner Dr. A. David McDonald.

“But it’s next to a corn field and once the corn was harvested, anyone could drive around it,” he said.

The dead person “was the driver of a burned out vehicle. There was significant fire damage to the body but no signs of any other injury,” McDonald said. “The identification of the body, the manner of death and the cause of death are still pending.”

Until the investigation is complete, no one can say how long the car may have been there before it was discovered, what caused it to burn or when it caught fire.