Man found dead in suspicious fire

Monday, September 17, 2007

The body of Eric Lomax, 20, was found the corner of the basement of the residence where he lived with his father on Revell Road at about 3:24 a.m. Saturday.
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Investigators are calling the death of a man found in a house that burned Saturday morning suspicious.

Firefighters found the body of Eric Lomax, 20, in the smoldering remains of his residence at 340 Revell Rd. at about 3:24 a.m., more than three hours after passing motorists at 12:07 a.m. alerted authorities the house was fully engulfed in flames.

According to Dyer County Fire Chief James Medling, initial reports that the house was not occupied were found to be false after a check of places Lomax might have been turned up nothing. Lomax, who was described by neighbors and in the reports as "mildly retarded," lived with his father at the home. His father was working on the third shift at a plant in Ripley when the fire occurred.

Lomax's body was found in the southeast corner of the basement of the house, said Medling.

Tennessee regional Bomb and Arson Investigation Section investigators were contacted to examine the matter, said Medling. Lomax's body was transported to Nashville for an autopsy, he said.

At least one person of interest has been questioned by Dyer County Sheriff's investigators. According to police reports, a woman who witnesses said Lomax considered his girlfriend was reported at 5:10 p.m. to have attempted suicide.

Investigators were questioning her at the Dyersburg Regional Medical Center Saturday night.

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I think it was very rude and unprofessional to refer to the deceased man in this story as being "mildy retarded". How neighbors described him was not news worthy in the least as it had nothing to do with the story. What if they had described him as tall? Would that have been printed too? Very rarely do you see a newspaper use terms like "retarded".

-- Posted by Grape Nehi on Tue, Sep 18, 2007, at 7:01 AM

I think that refering to the deceased as "mildly retarded" was crude and disrespectful to the family, the neighbors opinion of him had nothing to do with this horrible tragedy. God Bless Eric and his family.

-- Posted by peyton923 on Tue, Sep 18, 2007, at 9:26 AM

Not too long ago there was an article in the SG that had headlines pertaining to "The Disabled"...

Seems that people/editors, etc. who write for a newspaper would have more political correctness knowledge.

-- Posted by donnatn40 on Thu, Sep 20, 2007, at 9:07 AM

I also feel that this remark about this young man to be disrepectful.What if this was your son mr.rimel or some of your family?would you have added mildly retarded or left it out?This was only hearsay about him having this condition and whether it's true or not,it is no ones business about his condition.There have been a few more remarks about people's past lives in the last few weeks in the paper that was published after a death that was uncalled for.It's bad enough to lose a loved one muchless to read about the bad things a person has done.What's the purpose?

-- Posted by pac831 on Fri, Sep 21, 2007, at 2:20 PM