Suzuki 4-stroke 140 hp burnt wiring harness help

[Mako19]

I know there are some boat mechanics on here that have been very helpful in the past to some posters with motor problems so I wanted to see if anyone had any advice for this one:

I am helping a friend try to fix his 140 hp 4 Stroke Suzuki motor. I think it is around a 2001 model.

The motor had not given him any problems until the last trip he took.
When he started the motor is started as usual and after about 5 minutes of idling he heard an alarm. Not sure hat alarm was for. Checked all fluids everything good, no more alarms, so continued on with trip. Around 4 hours of starting and stopping while fishing.

Killed motor at boat launch and backed-up trailer. Motor would not start back up to load onto trailer. No beep when key turned on, no trim, and no power anywhere else. Only thing on was gauge lights on console.

Pulled cawlin and noticed wires from wiring harness melted together (pictures attached). No fuses found burned or anything else wrong. Verified that there was still power at started on motor.

Our game plan as of now is to cut out the burnt section of wires on harness and then see what we have.

Any suggestions or experience are greatly apppreciated.

A very helpful friend, BGizzle, stated that the wire insulation may have just rotted and caused a short which caused the heat to melt the wires together. If this is the case then cutting out the bad section of the wires should do the trick.

My main concerns are:

The wires melting together like that could have fried computer or other devices.

Cutting the bad sections out and hooking it back up to battery will cause even more damage.

Thank you in advance for any input.