Authorities are still unable to identify the body found under 3 feet of rubble on Thursday in the ruins of the historic Foraker Farmhouse near Menaul and 9th Street NW that burned to the ground earlier this week, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

The fire that destroyed the building around 8 p.m. Tuesday burned with such intensity that it isn't even known whether the victim was a male or female, the Journal reported.

But the two people who escaped from the burning house have been identified as 36-year-old Leslie Huff and 48-year-old Glenn Davis, according to KOB-TV.

The two were treated for smoke inhalation, but after being discharged by the hospital they were arrested and charged with breaking and entering and could face additional charges, Albuquerque Fire Department Capt. Mike Paiz told KOB-TV.

Paiz told Eyewitness News 4 that the two told authorities they broke into the house through a boarded-up window, drank liquor and started a fire.

11:00am 3/13/08 UPDATE: The burned body of a still-unidentified person was located around 10 a.m. today at the bottom of a stairwell amid the ruins of the historic Creighton Foraker Farmhouse in the 900 block of Menaul NW, Albuquerque Fire Department spokeswoman Melissa Romero told ABQjournal.com.

It's not known whether the body is that of a male or female, and the state Office of the Medical Investigator has been called in to help identify the person and determine the cause of death, Romero told us.

Albuquerque homicide detectives will also help in the investigation, she said.

Fire investigators are still investigating the cause of the blaze that destroyed the more than century-old building that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties. 

Investigators looking into the cause of the fire that destroyed the historic Creighton Foraker Farmhouse near Menaul and 10th Street NW Tuesday night have discovered a body in the rubble, KRQE News 13 and KOB-TV are reporting.

Capt. Mike Paiz of the Albuquerque Fire Department told Eyewitness News 4 that the body was found after about 12 hours of combing through the debris left by the fire. 

Shortly after firefighters arrived at the scene around 8 p.m. Tuesday, two homeless people emerged from the building and told firefighters of a third person inside the building, according to earlier reports.

The transients, who escaped with minor injuries, were reported to be intoxicated and not very coherent, but firefighters were unable to find any evidence of a third person inside the building overnight Tuesday.

By the time firefighters arrived on the scene Tuesday night the abandoned building was fully engulfed in flames and firefighters took up a "defensive" posture, attacking the fire from outside the building both to protect adjacent properties and the safety of the firefighters themselves, AFD spokeswoman Melissa Romero told the Albuquerque Journal.

8:55am 3/12/08 -- Historic Building Burns on Menaul: Two homeless people escape building, tell of a possible third person inside.

The historic but abandoned Creighton Foraker Farmhouse at Menaul and 10th Street NW went up in flames Tuesday night, and two homeless people emerged from the building shortly after firefighters arrived and indicated there might be a third person inside, Albuquerque Fire Department spokeswoman Melissa Romero told ABQjournal.com.

The two were taken to University of New Mexico for treatment of minor injuries, but a third person was never found, Romero told us.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that there's somebody inside," AFD Capt. Mike Paiz told KOB-TV last night. "They could have easily gotten out another way and we just haven't been able to account for (him)." 

The two who escaped appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and told conflicting stories, Romero told us this morning.

Meanwhile, arson investigators were expected to be on scene this morning to find out how the fire started, according to Romero.

Firefighters were called to the fire on the 900 block of Menaul NW around 8 p.m. Tuesday and found the building fully ablaze, and it was not until midnight that the fire was brought under control, Romero said.

A woman who arrived on scene while the fire was under way told KOB-TV that the house belonged to her husband's parents and had been built in 1889 and was home to a former U.S. marshal in New Mexico's territorial days.

Also at the scene was Wanda Westerfield, who told KRQE News 13 that she had grown up in the house and had hoped to renovate the structure some day.

"My mom's house," Westerfield told News 13. "It's just been a wonderful house, and I'm so sorry that it's gone."

Then-U.S. Marshal Creighton Foraker originally built a two-room structure on a 60-acre farm just north of the Albuquerque Indian School in 2004, according to the Near North Valley Sector Development Plan.

Two additions were later added to make the building a two-story structure, according to the sector plan.

The building is on the city of Albuquerque's register of historic places and the state of New Mexico's register of cultural properties.

Foraker was featured in a 1910 New York Times article about "The Little Known Brothers of Well Known Men," the better-known brother being J.B. Foraker, a former governor of Ohio and longtime U.S. senator from that state.

Creighton Foraker was a well-known personage himself, at least in the Southwest, where he managed to capture "the band of desperadoes that, under the leadership of the notorious `Black Jack' Ketchum, had terrorized New Mexico for a number of years," the Times reported.

Foraker came to the New Mexico Territory in 1882 to work in the Burro Mountain mines in Grant County, then made enough money to go into the cattle-ranching business, which he expanded to become "one of the most successful cattlemen in the territory," according to George B. Anderson's "History of New Mexico."

He was named U.S. marshal for New Mexico in 1897 by then-President William McKinley and reappointed in 1901 and 1905, Anderson wrote. 

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