A printer found dead in his home and shop on Table Rock Road following a fire died in an act of "homicidal violence," an autopsy Wednesday concluded.

However, investigators are keeping mum on the details of Roger Paul Johansen's death as they work to unravel the mystery of who killed him.

In Wednesday's autopsy, Dr. James Olson, the state district medical examiner, confirmed the identity of Johansen, 50, and determined that his death was a homicide.

Investigators said they couldn't reveal how Johansen was killed, whether he was alive when fire broke out at the metal building where he lived and worked, or how the fire started.

"We are not going to endanger this investigation," Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters said.

He said case agents are tracking numerous leads and variables in hopes of resolving the case soon.

The Jackson County Major Assault and Death Investigation Unit is working on the case. A multiagency fire investigation team was called on to determine the cause of the fire that destroyed the shop and attached living quarters at 6608 Table Rock Road on Monday morning.

A driver passing by reported the fire shortly before 7:20 a.m. Jackson County Fire District No. 3 crews were quelling the blaze when they discovered Johansen's body.

Investigators determined that Johansen's gray 1997 Plymouth van was missing from the driveway. Its burned-out hulk was located Tuesday on the West Fork of Foots Creek Road after a caller reported seeing a suspicious vehicle in the area, officials said. The van was seized as evidence.

Johansen had an extensive criminal record, with convictions for assault, burglary and numerous meth-related drug crimes, as well as many civil complaints, Jackson County Circuit Court records show.

"Roger enjoyed the chaos," said John Granacki, who said he caroused with Johansen for nearly a decade and a half after first meeting him in the mid-1980s.

Granacki left that behind and moved to Grants Pass in 2002 after serving a year and a half in prison on a marijuana-delivery charge. He hadn't seen Johansen for several years, but recalls his rowdy friend fondly.

Johansen called himself "degenerate," and wore the description as "sort of a twisted badge of honor," Granacki said.

He said Johansen moved often — because he couldn't pay rent, because he liked cranking the stereo and drumming along to Led Zeppelin more than neighbors and landlords did, or because he feared someone was out to get him.

"Methamphetamine can make one paranoid, and that's what I always thought was going on, but it can also get one in trouble with seriously hard-core creditors, and I guess he must have had that problem too," Granacki wrote in an e-mail to the Mail Tribune. "Just because he was paranoid didn't mean they weren't actually out to get him."

Although speculation is rife in Johansen's circle of associates and some are wary about approaching authorities because of their own criminal background, investigators are confident someone has information about this week's homicide.

They ask anyone with information to call the Jackson County Sheriff's Department at 774-6800 or to report details anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 800-3-DETECT (800-333-8328).

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485 or aburke@mailtribune.com.