Weird news - Suspected thief stuck in chimney, dies after fire lit

It's always been a horror story. Imagine those scenes in movies where people try to enter a secure place or escape captivity by going through narrow pipes or metal tubes where there is a flame going to come through, or a fan moves at regular intervals that can cut people to pieces, and they manage to make it through everytime. Real life is more dangerous, and people are not successful every time they try to make it through such dangerous entrances. One of the perennial questions about the concept of Santa Claus is about coming in the house through a chimney, and whether Santa would get stuck inside the chimney or if the fire was lit, then it would get real dangerous. In a tragic case, a real life situation ended up where a suspected thief tried to enter the house through a chimney, got stuck, and died when the house owner lit a fire (without knowing that there was somebody stuck in the chimney). What a horrible way to die, although it might be the gases passing through the confined chimney rather than the fire or heat itself (link to article):

The man appeared to have climbed into the chimney during the night while the owner was away and then became stuck, according to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. The owner of the home in Huron lit a fire in his fireplace on Saturday afternoon but then heard a man yelling inside the chimney as the house filled with smoke, the sheriff's office said in a statement. The homeowner tried to extinguish the flames but firefighters who dismantled the chimney during a rescue effort found the suspect dead inside, the sheriff's office said.

Weird news - Finally found remains of man 27 years after disappearing - in a chimney

Sometimes one comes across a whodunit that can defy comprehension. You find a body after so long and no more know who it was, and given the position in which it was found, it will take a large amount of police work just to find out who the person who died was; forget about being able to find out why the person died, and even more important, if the death was not natural, who was the person behind the death. Consider this case, where a person was found dead in the chimney of a bank in Louisiana. The body was only found when the bank decided to do some renovation on the second floor of the building, the floor having been used only for storage space till now. Consider the shock to the people actually doing the renovation when they discover that there are the remains of a person in the place that is being renovated; everything needs to stop while the police is called. Also consider the feeling of employees who suddenly learnt that somebody probably died a very miserable death, dying after being a few days in the chimney.
And then DNA records find the identity of the person, and the family learns that the person who has been missing for 27 years had actually died soon after disappearing, being in the chimney of the local bank. What does the police do in such a case, and can they even suspect that this was a homicide ? (link to article):

A man missing for 27 years has finally been located, according to police reports. The remains of Joseph Schexnider, lost for 27 years, were finally discovered lodged in a brick chimney in the Abbeville National Bank in Louisiana. The bones were found in May, when the bank was making renovations on the second floor, which had been long used for storage, to make more office space. The identity of the body was confirmed this week through DNA.