Mushroom hunter finds body of woman in town without a murder since 1996, MO cops say
For 27 years, a small Missouri town had been without a murder.
But a recent discovery by a mushroom hunter is raising questions in Pevely, a suburb of St. Louis with a population of about 6,000 as of 2021.
The Pevely Police Department said in a news release the mushroom hunter found human remains April 23 along a woodline. The remains have not been positively identified, but KTVI reported the body is of a woman.
In an interview with Leader Publications, Pevely Police Chief Mark Glenn considered the death “suspicious” and said the body “was in a state of decay.”
Jill Rodgers, who made the discovery, told KTVI she is still in shock.
“I was walking up the hill, and I was coming near this long tree that was laid over,” Rodgers said. “There was something huge laying down on the ground. There was a moving blanket, so I pulled that back. I took a big tree limb and lifted it up, and it clearly looked like a foot, a human foot.”
Police have not released details of the autopsy. The investigation is ongoing.
A clerk with the Pevely Police Department told McClatchy News the town has not had a murder since 1996.
The discovery is one of two instances of mushroom hunters coming across human remains in Missouri in a matter of days.
On April 21, a mushroom hunter found remains on private property in Daviess County, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Daviess County is about 75 miles northeast of Kansas City.
Troopers continue to investigate the remains of the Daviess County victim, who is unidentified.
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