Body Found on Cherokee County Property Identified

CHEROKEE COUNTY — Cherokee County authorities have positively identified a body found in a home Thursday as Michael Alan Davis, 60, from the Alto community. The sheriff’s department said just after 11:00 a.m., a property owner called 9-1-1 to report that he had stopped by one of his properties near the intersection of U.S. Hwy. 69 and County Road 2430 and had found a deceased person in the living room. The owner told deputies that he had last checked the property on March 31 and was unaware that anyone had been staying there.

Justice of the Peace Precinct 2 Tony Johnson arrived on scene and ordered an autopsy. The deceased was sent to Tyler for autopsy. There did not appear to be any signs of a struggle inside the residence, and no obvious signs of trauma were observed.

At approximately 4:00 Friday afternoon, Cherokee County investigators, with assistance from the medical examiner’s office, identified the dead man as Davis. No cause of death has been determined by the medical examiner’s office at this time. Davis’s residence had burned down earlier in the year and he was reportedly staying in a travel trailer on the adjoining property to the abandoned house. It is unknown how long he had been coming to the abandoned house, but he apparently died on or about April 1 or 2.