Colorado wildfire deaths take criminal turn, as two homicides are investigated

A Colorado sheriff said the two deaths reported in the Black Forest Fire that has raged in recent days are now being treated as homicides.

“Obviously, we discovered the two bodies [on Thursday], and we will treat it as a crime scene and investigate it that way until we prove otherwise,” said El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, in The Associated Press.

Investigators are currently sifting the scores of tips and leads they’ve received, he said.

“We have people wanting to provide photos of where the original smoke was located, and so we want to make sure we have everything in place to start sorting through that data and forwarding what’s really necessary right directly to the investigators,” Mr. Maketa said, AP reported.

The current wildfire is worse than the one that hit the same region in 2012, and killed two and left 347 homes destroyed, firefighters said in the AP report.

This year’s fire devastated 360 or more homes, and 39,000 were forced to evacuate, fire officials reported.