Kosciusko County officials have now charged a Mentone man with murder in the death of his former best friend.

Marc Alan Greene, 41, of Mentone, and Brad Dean Wetzel, 40, of Syracuse, were arguing in front of their vehicles about 3:45 p.m. Saturday on a roadside near Dewart Lake, when Greene got into his Chevrolet pickup truck, police said.

Wetzel, thinking Greene was about to leave, stayed put. But instead of leaving, Greene rammed Wetzel with his truck, pinning him against his Chevrolet El Camino, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Chad Hill said previously.

Greene got out of his truck and fled. When police arrived, Wetzel was still conscious and told sheriff’s deputies what happened, Hill said.

Wetzel died on arrival at Kosciusko Community Hospital in Warsaw.

Detectives tracked down Greene at his Mentone home and arrested him less than an hour later.

He originally faced charges of reckless homicide and operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death, but the reckless homicide charge has been upgraded to murder.

He was being held without bail in the Kosciusko County Jail.

Police were told that Greene and Wetzel had been best friends but that their relationship had deteriorated recently. Authorities did not say what the men were arguing about.

An autopsy was performed Sunday on Wetzel, according to Kosciusko County Coroner John Sadler, but the cause of death is pending, awaiting laboratory results

Information collected as well as witnesses at the scene provided investigators with probable cause to upgrading the charge to murder, according to a written statement from the sheriff’s department.