US

Decomposing Body Found In Car About To Be Scrapped, Police Say

Shutterstock/PoliceTapeAlabama

Kay Smythe News and Commentary Writer
Font Size:

A decomposing body was found Wednesday inside of a car that was about to be scrapped, Alabama law enforcement said.

The car was sitting inside of a shopping center parking lot for an unknown number of days with the body inside of it, according to a Facebook post from Jasper Police Department. Numerous calls were made to the department related to a death in the vehicle, but the car was still scheduled to be scrapped behind the business before it was investigated, Newsweek noted.

When law enforcement arrived, they found the body of a male in advanced stages of decomposition, suggesting he’d been there for quite some time. The body was found with narcotics and paraphernalia, suggesting that the likely cause of death was an overdose.

The Georgia Clean Trauma Services biohazard team were called in to help law enforcement manage the discovery. Reports suggest that the body was in the fourth of five stages of human decomposition, Newsweek noted. The body was then turned over to Walker County Coroner’s office. (RELATED: ‘Take Turns’: New York City Public Health Poster Says Doing Drugs Is Fine If Done Safely)

“Detectives with our office were able to identify the man, but release of his identity is pending notification of his family,” Jasper police wrote on their Facebook page. Overdose (or narcotic poisoning) deaths in Alabama are roughly 22.3 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.