DESOTO COUNTY, MS (abc24.com) - A body, house fire and a cache of ammunition. It's a case that spans two Mississippi towns.
Answers are slowly trickling in about how a man found dead in an Olive Branch house fire Monday, January 9th, is related to his booby-trapped home almost 20 miles away in Southaven .
Those living in the Southaven neighborhood were evacuated Monday as deputies searched 42-year-old Kenneth Wayne Cross' home for explosives.
It's a case that has had one twist and turn after another, and investigators think they may never know all the answers.
The DeSoto County Sheriff's Department is waiting on an autopsy report, but deputies believe Cross' death was a suicide. His body was found right next to a gun, and a note was found in his home.
"It's been a quiet neighborhood all these years," said James Smith. "Ain't had no trouble over here at all. I didn't even know his name."
"I've never seen him," says Billy Dees. "Not even once."
"I've lived across the street for 20 years," adds Connie Rasberry. "I think it's rather significant that no one knew him."
His Southaven neighbors don't know much about who Cross was, what he did for a living and why he had all kinds of weapons in his house.
Cross' home isn't where he died. His body and car were found inside the burned out carport of a home several miles away in Olive Branch.
What's left was still smoking the next day. Sheriff investigators call the fire arson, but they won't say who set it.
The house is owned by a couple not related to Cross. As to how he knew the couple, that depends on who you ask.
The sheriff's department won't say, but neighbors tell abc24.com Cross was an ex-employee of theirs, one recently let go.
The Olive Branch homeowners weren't there when the fire started and Cross reportedly shot himself.
When investigators searched Cross' home in Southaven, they found weapons and ammunition and a fake hand grenade rigged to the back door.
"I saw them taking some of them out earlier," says Rasberry. "Rifles and whatever they were. With the discovery of all the weaponry, that goes into a little bit of scary mode."
"He certainly was no maniac," Rasberry says. "Very quiet, very quiet, but you do worry about the quiet ones sometimes. But how could anyone ever see this coming? It just to me has got sad all over it."
