Sikeston, Missouri, Department of Public Safety investigators have determined a badly burned man believed to have been assaulted actually was injured in a motor-vehicle accident.

The man was dropped off at a convenience store Thursday night in Miner, Missouri, after an unknown person found him near Route ZZ and U.S. 61, according to a news release from Sikeston DPS Capt. Jim McMillen.

The man’s vehicle was found wedged in a gap in a wooded area, burned, with its gas tank ruptured, McMillen wrote.

“This incident had all indications of a motor-vehicle accident in which the victim’s vehicle accidentally caught fire,” McMillen wrote in the release. “Our detectives found no indications showing that the victim suffered anything other than a vehicle accident in which the gas tank ruptured.”

The man’s daughter wrote Sunday on Facebook: “I pray they find the person or people responsible.”

McMillen wrote in the news release the department’s investigation contradicted earlier reports the man had been assaulted.

The daughter also wrote the man was transferred to St. Louis, and he was scheduled for a stress test

Monday to see whether he could handle surgery Thursday.

Pertinent address: 2823 E. Malone Ave., Miner MO