FOUR OAKS — Johnston County authorities on Wednesday made public the name of a woman who was killed Saturday morning when a barn exploded near Four Oaks.

Heather Beasley Parker, 32, lived in Johnston County, according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Tammy Amaon.

Firefighters with the Four Oaks Volunteer Fire Department pulled Parker’s body from the burning building. Her remains were transported to the N.C. State Medical Examiner’s Office in Raleigh where pathologists used abdominal X-rays obtained from Johnston Memorial Hospital in Smithfield to identify her, said Clyde Gibbs, a medical examiner spokesman.

Investigators with the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office say that after the fire was extinguished, they found what appeared to be materials used in the manufacture of methamphetamine in the barn. The sheriff’s office contacted the State Bureau of Investigation for a “clandestine laboratory cleanup.”

Firefighters were called to the 4600 block of U.S. 301 South shortly after 9 a.m. and found the white barn behind the one-story, red-brick home engulfed in flames, Amaon reported.

The home was formerly owned by Edward Earl “Little Man” Massengill, who died in 2006.

A neighbor, Jeffery Levi Lawrence, said Massengill left the property to his family. The property is currently owned by Brittney Leigh Massengill and was rented by Melissa Thornton Tart, according to an incident report filed at the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators have not yet disclosed if Tart or Massengill were acquainted with Parker.

McDonald: 919-829-4533