Coroner says Vincent Force, found buried behind a west Erie apartment house in July, died of malnutrition, bed sores.

The Erie County Coroner's Office has ruled the death of a man found buried behind a west Erie apartment house in July as a homicide.

Vincent Force, 85, died of malnutrition and bed sores, Coroner Lyell Cook said late Thursday morning.

Cook said he made his ruling on the manner of Force's death late Wednesday following an investigation by Erie County forensic pathologist Erie Vey, M.D.

Authorities found Force's body in a shallow grave in the tiny backyard of an apartment house in the 200 block of West Fifth Street on the afternoon of July 14, as Erie and Millcreek Township police were investigating Force's whereabouts after he was reported missing to Millcreek police on July 13.

The Coroner's Office confirmed the identity of the body as Force's in early August, based on information from different sources, Cook said.

Authorities had suspected that the body was Force's based on information provided by two residents of the apartment house who said they were caring for Force and who admitted to burying the body.

Elizabeth D. Taylor, 28, and Antonio D. McLaurin, 33, both told investigators that Force died on June 18 and that his body was wrapped in plastic and garbage bags and buried in the backyard of the West Fifth Street apartment house, according to information in the criminal complaints filed against them.

Investigators said Taylor and McLaurin also told them that Force was scalded while in their care and that Taylor said McLaurin intentionally scalded Force in the shower.

Taylor and McLaurin were each charged with neglect of care-dependent person, aggravated assault, abuse of a corpse, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and tampering with evidence. They remain in the Erie County Prison on bonds of $300,000 each, awaiting preliminary hearings on Sept. 13.

Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri said Thursday that investigators will have to determine whether to refile charges against Taylor and McLaurin or amend their criminal complaints at the preliminary hearings based on the homicide ruling.

There have been 12 deaths in Erie County ruled as homicides, six of which have occurred in Erie, this year.

For more coverage see Friday's Erie Times-News and www.GoErie.com.