A dead body found in the basement of a burned out Shaughnessy home is the latest twist in a tale straight out of a Sopranos' storyline.
Vancouver Fire Service ruled arson caused a three-alarm blaze late Monday at 1518 Laurier St. after multiple fires were discovered at different points inside the 1912 Samuel Maclure heritage home.
Firefighters knocked down the blaze to discover the charred remains of a man in the basement.
Vancouver police entered the home yesterday after obtaining a search warrant.
Identifying the deceased could take days, said Const. Lindsey Houghton.
A dispute over legal ownership of the house caught the city's attention when reports surfaced Robert Poloni, an accused drug trafficker, had swindled then-owner Gail Hewitt out of the home along with her personal belongings.
Court proceedings revealed Hewitt was no savoury character having been convicted in Seattle of social security fraud in 2002.
A B.C. judge ruled in October Poloni held rights to the property after Hewitt defaulted on debts owed to him, according to reports.
Over that time neighbour Murvin Pylot said he saw different people coming and going from the home.
"I know what I suspect, but I'm not going to go on camera and say so," he said.
When a reporter suggested the home was used for drug deals, Pylot replied, "Yeah."
"You don't see anything," he continued. "It's just a lot of comin' and goin'. Shaky lookin' people."
