By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA -- A day after the burning body of rapper Beanie Sigel's stepfather was found on a city street, two armed men abducted the victim's friend from his home, police said.

Detectives were investigating if the slaying of Samuel Derry III, whose charred and bullet-ridden body was found Tuesday, was related to Wednesday's pre-dawn abduction of a man Derry had befriended in prison.

Derry, 46, had attended Sigel's attempted murder retrial in Philadelphia last month, which ended with an acquittal. Sigel's family did not think Derry's death was linked to any of the rapper's legal entanglements, his lawyer said.

"There's no indication whatsoever that the two are connected. I can't imagine any circumstance that the recent trial has anything to do with this murder," lawyer Fortunato N. Perri Jr. said.

Sigel's own father died of a heart attack just before the trial.

"He's not doing well," Perri said of the 31-year-old rapper, whose real name is Dwight Grant. "The family is in mourning."

Sigel, arriving at his mother's South Philadelphia home Monday night in a black Maserati, scolded reporters for "bringing cameras where people live." He said the family would have no comment on Derry's death.

Wallace Moody, 39, was grabbed at gunpoint from outside his North Philadelphia home by two men in hooded shirts while his wife and children were at home, police said. Moody's wife reported that the men forced her husband into one of two vehicles they brought and drove off at about 5:40 a.m. Wednesday.

Derry had served time in prison with Moody a few years ago and the two remained friends, according to officials at the city's Northwest Detective unit, which was investigating Moody's abduction.

Derry served time for robbery and other charges, several news outlets reported Wednesday.

He was shot several times, his burning body left on a patch of brush in a northwest Philadelphia neighborhood at about 4:15 a.m. Tuesday. An autopsy concluded that Derry died from the gunshot wounds before his body was set on fire, city health department spokesman Jeff Moran said.

Derry married Sigel's mother, Michelle Brown-Derry, in June 2004.

Sigel, then in prison on federal gun and drug charges, was given a day's leave to attend the wedding. He was released in August after serving a year on those charges and was then acquitted of shooting a man outside a West Philadelphia strip club in July 2003.

Sigel still faces a scheduled January assault trial stemming from a January 2003 fight outside a Chinese restaurant.

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