NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Residents along a cul-de-sac told police they saw a small fire near the spot where the burned and beheaded body of a convicted sex offender was found.

Police said the fire was seen Wednesday night near Hidden Ridge Drive about 20 miles northwest of Detroit in Northville Township, the Detroit Free Press reported Thursday.

The body of Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen, 26, of River Rouge, was found about 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the end of the culdesac by a township sewer and water department crew, according to the Free Press and The Detroit News.

He was identified by the Michigan State Police through a fingerprint taken from his burned hand. The print also revealed Sorensen had been a registered sex offender in Illinois.

Sorensen's head has not been found and a cause of death has not been released.

"Who would do something like this to my son? It's not real to me right now," said his father, Jim.

Sorenson, of River Rouge, worked as a bar bouncer, his father told WJBK-TV.

The criminal sexual conduct charge stemmed from a relationship the younger Sorenson had had with an underage girl, his father said. His sex offender status was "a cloud that hung over his head," his mother Kim told WXYZ-TV.

"He was a good person ... but he had a rough life," Kim Sorenson said.