The body discovered late Wednesday afternoon while firefighters were extinguishing hotspots at an old farmhouse that went up in flames near the edge of the Waterloo city limits earlier that morning has been identified as a 23-year-old Waterloo man.

Monroe County Coroner Vicki Koerber on Friday identified the deceased as William C. Holmes Jr. For visitation times and funeral services, click here.

“An autopsy was performed, with cause and manner of death pending further investigation,” Koerber issued in a press release.

In March, Holmes was charged with two counts of knowingly burning after allegedly setting fires that destroyed playground equipment at Brinkop Park in St. Louis County. Holmes was a senior at the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary when the alleged crime occurred.

Firefighters responded about 1 a.m. Wednesday to a two-story farmhouse located at the end of a long muddy trail at 968 North Moore Street, which is the former Carlyle Hartman farmstead. It has sat vacant for at least 25 years.

Firefighters returned to that location multiple times throughout the morning and afternoon Wednesday to extinguish hotspots.

The fire was initially called in by a newspaper delivery person, Waterloo Fire Chief Brett Wiegand said.

“Upon arrival, the house was engulfed in flames and fire was already through the roof in the front of the house,” Wiegand said.

Waterloo police said they had recently received a missing persons report of a potentially suicidal male and believed the body found was of that individual.

“Nothing indicates foul play, according to the autopsy and scene,” Trantham told the Republic-Times.

Gaining access to the property proved to be difficult since fire trucks had to enter a small overgrown driveway on the edge of Waterloo city limits that was secured with a gate, the fire chief explained.

“We also had to make sure that we could get our trucks down the narrow driveway without getting stuck in the mud,” Wiegand said. “We were eventually able to get attack lines set up with the tanker truck backing down the driveway to supply water.”

After working to try to get the fire under control for about an hour, the fire department brought its ladder truck to get water into the second story of the 200-year-old house.

The steel roof of the house had collapsed into the upstairs, so firefighters applied foam using the ladder truck to try to extinguish any remaining hot spots.

Since there weren’t any utilities to the old farmhouse, the state fire marshal was called to investigate a cause of the blaze.

The chief classified the cause of the fire as undetermined at this time, pending a full investigation by the fire marshal.