ADDIS - Officials have identified a badly burned body that was found in a fiery sugarcane field as an 18-year-old who had been missing from Plaquemine for six days.

Sahajda Doc Willis with the West Baton Rouge Coroner's Office said dental records matched Ja’Morius Mitchell, who was reported missing Dec. 12.

"We suspected danger from the start," Plaquemine Police Chief Stephen Engolio told the WBRZ Investigative Unit. "He was usually very reliable with keeping in touch with his mother, then nothing. I just had a bad feeling on this one almost from day one."

Mitchell's body was found in burning sugarcane along Sid Richardson Road in Addis on Wednesday afternoon. Sources told WBRZ the victim had a gunshot wound.

WBRZ previously spoke with Troy Canella, the farmer who first saw the fire and then found the body in the field. He said it all happened just before 3 p.m. West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's deputies arrived about an hour later.

Mitchell's death is being investigated as a homicide.