James Burns, an 84-year-old white man, was found dead in Springfield, Missouri, on July 13, 2018. The Greene County Sheriff’s Office initially opened a homicide investigation after his death, indicating that foul play was at least suspected early on.

Investigators pursued that homicide line for more than a month, but in late August 2018 the sheriff’s office announced it no longer believed Burns had been murdered. Authorities said the death was not the result of a criminal act, and the search for suspects and any arrests stopped. No arrests were made and the case was closed as not a crime.

What details about Burns’s death or the investigation might still help clarify what happened that summer?