By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

A credit card belonging to Michael H. Kordis was used at two convenience stores in Joplin the night before his partially burned body was discovered in a pickup truck at Grand Falls, according to a Joplin Police Department report.

The Newton County Sheriff’s Department continued hunting Friday for Michael J. Osborne, 22, and Tasha B. Brownlee, 23, in connection with Kordis’ death.

Osborne, of rural Newton County, and Brownlee, of Joplin, are suspected of having been with Kordis when he died, and were charged by the Newton County prosecutor’s office on Tuesday with felony abandonment of a corpse. They have dodged questioning and arrest by investigators after two fishermen found the body April 2 in the truck.

Chief Deputy Chris Jennings told the Globe on Friday that there is reason to believe Osborne and Brownlee are still in the area. He said the Sheriff’s Department has received word of a number of reported sightings, but deputies have yet to catch up with them.

Investigators still have no reason to believe Kordis was murdered. His corpse bore no obvious signs of homicide, and an autopsy confirmed that he died before the body was set on fire.

Sheriff Ken Copeland said earlier this week that Kordis died somewhere other than Grand Falls on Shoal Creek south of Joplin, and that Osborne and Brownlee are believed to have driven around with him in the pickup truck before disposing of his body at the creek. The department has not indicated exactly when Kordis died, although the sheriff has said that he may have been dead several hours before his body was set on fire.

The truck did not belong to Kordis and is registered to someone other than Osborne or Brownlee. Authorities have not publicly identified the owner of the black GMC truck.

A Joplin Police Department incident report that became public on Friday shows that purchases were made with the dead man’s credit card the night of April 1 at Hall’s Food Mart, 2002 S. Bird Ave., and at Cody’s convenience store, 1827 S. Maiden Lane.

Cpl. Chuck Niess of the Police Department said police looked into those purchases after receiving information from Newton County that Kordis’ credit card may have been used after his death. The two purchases totaled $48 at Hall’s and $83 at Cody’s.

More tests

Additional tests are being conducted in an effort to pinpoint the cause in the Michael Kordis death.