COLONY — The mysterious death of an Iola man two months ago near Colony has been ruled an accident. The body of 70-year-old John Stoneking, Sr., was found burned in the back seat of his pickup truck. His pickup hit a row of hay bales at the end of a dead end road and caught on fire. Anderson County Sheriff Scot Brownrigg said it appeared that after it hit the hay bales, the truck remained running and it eventually caught the hay on fire. Brownrigg said the autopsy shows that Stoneking had a high blood-alcohol level. He told the Anderson County Review that Stoneking apparently crawled into the back seat of his pickup to sleep and died of smoke inhalation.
