A father has made a bold claim about his son's death after allegedly mistaking him for an intruder.
Michael C. Howard, from Texas, has been charged with fatally shooting his son - who had Down syndrome - after claiming he had mistaken him for an intruder, before later burning his body.
The 68-year-old, who is an attorney in Houston, told the authorities that over the weekend, he was at one of the homes he owned in Sabine County when he accidentally killed his 20-year-old son, Mark Randall Howard, after believing he was a stranger who had broken into the building.
The only other person that had access to the building was a "caretaker."
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office Deputy J.P. MacDonough confirmed at a press conference that Howard did not call the Sheriff’s Office until the next day, approximately 17 hours after the killing.
Instead, he had used that time to take his son’s body approximately two miles away to a remote area with a tractor and "cremate" it on top of some wood.
The father-and-son duo had traveled to the area a few days prior, on Thursday or Friday, authorities noted.
Howard later told investigators that the whole thing was a “horrible accident," before adding that he had "cremated his son in accordance with what he felt his son would have wanted."
"All bones appeared to have been burned based on charring and the area they were found in, was heavy with soot and ash," the sheriff’s office said in a press release posted to Facebook via a reporter's network.
It was also said that the victim had been formally diagnosed with Down syndrome, but was "high functioning."
"It is a bizarre crime anywhere you are just because of the nature of the event," MacDonough said. "Mr. Howard committed this act and in the furtherance of that, burned the body and cleaned the crime scene, which as an investigator, I would take as indicative of nefarious purposes or for nefarious purposes."
Two days prior to the shooting, Howard had made a call to the police to report the theft of some of his property, including a large mower and a trailer.
According to the New York Post, he declined to say if the thefts might have played a role in Howard thinking his son was an intruder at the home in Sabine County.
The outlet also reported that the senior remains jailed in Sabine County on bonds totaling $20 million after being charged with murder as well as tampering with evidence.
Authorities also stated that additional charges may be filed in the future.