'Anything Is On The Table': Updates After Two Bodies Found In Burned Up Trailer In Holt

HOLT, AL — Investigators are still working to piece together the events that led to two bodies being found in a burned down trailer on Garber Road in Holt on Wednesday.

Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts.

The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, along with various other local and state agencies, were on the scene early Thursday morning after working through the night. Just after 9 a.m., emergency officials could be seen sifting through the ashes and wreckage of single-wide trailer — with little else but the frame left intact.

The scene is located on a county road with numerous blighted properties in the area.

Captain Jack Kennedy, the commander of the unit, confirmed to local media Thursday morning that deputies discovered the two bodies and the remains have been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensics for positive identification and autopsy.

In the meantime, investigators hope to find answers, namely as to how the victims died and how the fire started.

It's important to note that investigators freely walked around the scene, with no smell of smoke or embers left smoldering. Kennedy said this leads investigators to believe that the fire could have occurred sometime Monday or Tuesday, but went unreported to Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue.

He then said the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office received a call Wednesday afternoon from individuals who had not been able to reach other members of their family for several days.

"So they came here to check on them and when they arrived they found that the residence had burned," Kennedy said.

Kennedy declined to identify the victims, as the investigation is in its earliest stages, but said the possibility for a criminal component is always considered in all Violent Crimes Unit cases.

"Anything is on the table," he said. "It's one of the things our metro Violent Crimes Unit prides itself on and the reason we investigate any death out of a medical setting is we treat them all the same, in case something comes up later. Right now, we don't know when this fire occurred. We don't know the cause of the fire and until we get those official reports back and complete this investigation , we're not going to be able to lean one way or the other. So we treat every case as if there was the possibility for a criminal act."

Those with any information concerning this case are asked to call the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit at (205) 464-8690.

This is a developing story. Follow us at Tuscaloosa Patch for more.