Body found buried deep below floor as crews search home a third time, Alabama cops say
It was the third time the Mobile County (Ala.) Sheriff’s Office had visited the vacant home in Georgetown to search the area for a body after a series of tips had filtered in last year, WALA reported.
This time, they found something deep under the floor.
The officers unearthed remains from a body that had been decomposing for over a year, they told WALA.
Officials found remains the morning of Jan. 13 after using heavy construction equipment to aid in the search, WPMI reported.
According to WKRG, the sheriff’s office received reliable tips last year regarding the crime scene indicating that a body had been buried there, and officers believe that the body is related to a criminal case from roughly 13 months ago. If it wasn’t for the tips, according to Sgt. Mark Bailey, officials never would have found the body.
“The floor was taken up… the body was buried and the floor was replaced. No one would ever think to look under the house of an abandoned residence,” Bailey told WKRG.
The crew brought K9s the first time, which hit an area of interest under the floor, according to WPMI. The first search led them to believe there was a body located at the site.
Two more attempts followed due to safety issues before remains were located, officers told WALA. Despite the nature of the profession, Bailey told the press that he had never encountered a scene quite like the one in the abandoned home.
“In my 23 years in law enforcement, I’ve never seen a body disposed of under a structure and then the floor put back, and buried at that depth,” Bailey said in a news conference “That’s almost deeper than a grave at a cemetery.”
According to WPMI, police believe the body is linked to a criminal case from over a year ago.
“The remains have been here going on 14 months so there is a good bit of decomposition and other factors that just make identification impossible at this time,” Bailey said in a statement to the media.
McClatchy News reached out to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office for comment on the investigation and has not received a response.
Georgetown is about 25 miles northwest of Mobile, Ala.
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