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Burned Body Found In St. Paul Alley Identified

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- St. Paul Police say the burned body found in an alley has been identified as 30-year-old Quincy Antwain Blue, of Brooklyn Park.

A 3-year-old boy and his mother discovered Blue on the east side of St. Paul Wednesday morning.

A badly burned body was found in an alley near Westminster and Geranium streets.

Yolonda Sim and her son Dominic walk her oldest children to the bus stop every day from their Westminster Street home. For some reason, Dominic wanted to take a different route back on Wednesday.

They walked down the alley behind their home. Dominic was the first to see the body.

"He said 'Mommy look a ghost,'" said Sim.

Dominic was just feet away from the corpse. The body lay in the grass, next to the garage in the alley behind Sim's home.

"At first he was just kind of shaking and kind of scared and asked me he wants to go home," Sim said.

She went to a neighbor's house to call police. When authorities arrived at around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday,  they discovered the body was badly burned. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office identified the body but are still investigating a cause of death. Blue's death is being investigated as a homicide.

"The burns were significant enough for us not to be able to tell the gender of the victim," said Senior Homicide Commander Bill Martinez.

Word spread quickly around the neighborhood about the dead body being discovered. Many awoke to find yellow tape and investigators searching for clues.

"It's really scary to know that something this bad happened right across the street from my house," said neighbor Melissa Al-Qudah.

Homicide investigators said they now have a mystery on their hands.

"We don't know if it's a natural death. This is a death investigation until we get additional information," said Martinez.

Sim said her children play in the back yard daily. She said they played there Tuesday and there was nothing unusual.

No arrests have been made in this incident.

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