The Franklin County sheriff released the name on Friday of the person whose body was found in a car fire on June 23.
The death of Jessie May Lovett, 36, of Van Buren has been ruled an accident, Sheriff Anthony Boen said.
Her body was found in a car at the end of White Valley Road northwest of Ozark. Boen said the state medical examiner’s office in Little Rock determined that Lovett died of smoke inhalation.
It is not known how she ended up at the end of the isolated road, Boen said.
The sheriff had said that it appeared Lovett’s car was stuck in a roadside ditch and that she may have started a fire in her effort to drive out of the ditch.
There were marks where it appeared the car’s tires were spinning and that friction from the spinning tires or heat from the car engine is believed to have ignited the tinder dry vegetation around the car, Boen said.
The fire spread to the surrounding woods, and two volunteer fire companies were called in to extinguish it.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 14 on 06/30/2012