Honolulu police detectives opened a murder investigation after the body of a 65-year-old man was found early Wednesday in his Whitmore Village home.

The body was discovered just after midnight in a house on Kaniahe Street by police following up on a report of a car burning north of Makaha earlier in the evening.

Firefighters reported extinguishing a car fire at 11:11 p.m. at the entrance to Makua Cave on Farrington Highway. The car appeared to have been abandoned, a fire official said.

When police went to talk to the registered owner on Kaniahe Street, they found the body.

The case was originally classified as an unattended death, but certain aspects have led detectives to reclassify it as a second-degree murder investigation.

Fred Rulloda, a Whitmore Village neighbor, said he went to bed at about 11:30 p.m., but woke up about 30 minutes later when he heard a woman screaming.

Minutes after that, police cars and an ambulance arrived at the house near the end of Kaniahe Street.

Rulloda said he lived next to the victim for the past 15 years but rarely talked to him and didn’t know his name.

“He kept pretty much to himself,” Rulloda said.

Rulloda noticed that the victim’s car was missing from the garage Wednesday morning.

“It was really shocking to hear that something happened to him,” he said.