By MATTHEW HENDRICKSON
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Emergency crews responding to a fire in the basement of a home Friday morning in the Norwood Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side found a badly wounded Loren Flensborg. An autopsy later showed the 75-year-old had been stabbed to death.
Chicago Fire Department crews were called just before 6 a.m. to the home in the 5000 block of North Oak Park, according to the department.
Flensborg was found unconscious in the living room of his home, and was taken to Presence Resurrection Medical Center, where he died at 6:35 a.m., fire officials and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
An autopsy Saturday found he died of multiple sharp force injuries and his death was ruled a homicide, the medical examiner’s office said.
The fire appeared to have started in the basement of the home, fire officials said. It was put out in about 20 minutes. The Chicago Police Bomb and Arson Unit was called to the scene and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Police said Sunday the incident was reclassified as a murder and was also being investigated by Area North detectives.
Family members said Flenborg was retired carpenter, and had spent the last several years rehabbing and renting out buildings on the North Side.