BANGOR (AP) – A man whose body was found engulfed in flames beneath a bridge over Kenduskeag Stream was identified Friday as a 34-year-old from Washington County who had been staying at a Bangor homeless shelter and living on the street.

Police identified the man as Trevor Sprague, who was from Lubec but had been spending the past few months in the Bangor area.

With a positive identification, police said the investigation now turns to whether Sprague’s death was a homicide, a suicide or an accident.

Although an autopsy performed earlier in the week by the state medical examiner’s office proved inconclusive, police have labeled the death suspicious. A final determination of the cause could take months.

After a motorist spotted the fire early Tuesday evening, police and firefighters arrived at the Harlow Street bridge to find a body face-down on an embankment and consumed by flames.

Investigators have thus far found nothing to indicate the presence of an accelerant such as gasoline.

“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. They could test it at the crime lab and come up with something,” Detective Sgt. Paul Kenison said.

Police stopped vehicles near the bridge Thursday and handed out leaflets inquiring whether motorists saw anything around the time the fire occurred. In the meantime, a makeshift memorial was set up near the site of Sprague’s death.

Sprague, like other homeless people, was known to have stayed on occasion under the bridge.

His death has spurred concern that he may have been an assault victim who was targeted because he was homeless. The speculation was fueled by a series of reports of assaults on the homeless, including a case Sunday in which a man was kicked in the stomach and set on fire while sleeping on a park bench in Boston.

Dennis Marble of the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter said Sprague “was trying to stay clean and sober while fighting depression.” Shelters serving the homeless in the Bangor area planned to launch an education program to warn homeless people that they are susceptible to violence.

Sprague’s death caused some homeless people to stay away from the area where many are known to have congregated and camped.

“I don’t think it’s wise for anybody to camp out down there any more,” Steve Marshall said.

The police department’s Kenison cautioned against concluding that the man in Bangor was similarly assaulted.

“We don’t have any information that that’s the case,” he said.

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