Authorities have recovered the body of William Roper Jr., following a grass fire mid-afternoon Saturday on Mississippi 7, going north near Chapman subdivision.
Authorities aren't sure if the fire and Roper's death are related. They believe Roper killed himself.
Priscilla Holdridge, Roper's mother, called the Leflore County Sheriff's Department around 11:30 a.m., Saturday, and told authorities her 57-year-old son said he was out in the woods and wanted to kill himself, said Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks. Holdridge lives out of state.
Deputies went out to Roper's residence at 1412 Grenada Blvd. Extended., but nobody was home.
Roper also left a message for his wife at the home address at 1:51 p.m. Saturday, the sheriff said.
About 11/2 hours later, Greenwood Fire Department responded to a grass fire off Miss. 7.
Firefighters discovered the body while they extinguished the fire, said Jackie Brown, the deputy coroner on the scene, and called the sheriff's office.
Said Banks, "The evidence there was that he tried to hurt himself with razor blades, had a campfire and that's what set the grass on fire."
Roper had attempted to kill himself before, Banks said, by shutting himself up in a car and stopping up the exhaust pipe.
His wife told authorities that Roper had a terminal illness.
The cause of Roper's death is undetermined, pending an autopsy, Brown said. The man's body has been sent to Mississippi Mortuary Services in Pearl.
Gary Fulgham, Leflore County fire coordinator, said the fire didn't damage anything other than an area of grass and some trees.
