Cause of death

still undetermined

by authorities



By Angie Thompson

angie.thompson@gaflnews.com



TIFTON — Officials are trying to determine the cause of death of a woman whose body was found off O’Quinn Road Monday afternoon by several teen-agers.

Three juveniles were taking a shortcut to a subdivision off Ferry Lake Road in east Tifton when they found the badly decomposed body of a woman investigators said was Caucasian and 30 to 40 years old. The body was fully clothed and will be sent to the Atlanta crime lab for an autopsy to determine the specific cause of death.

“We don’t know as yet whether or not foul play is involved,” Chief Deputy Bruce Willis of the Tift County Sheriff’s Department said.

Willis, who fingerprinted the woman, said the body had not been moved and evidence was still being collected at 6 p.m. Monday.

Willis said the juveniles ran to Beverly Health Care and called the TCSD to report the incident.

Willis said the TCSD has not had any reports of missing persons recently, which “is not good.”

“It is possible that this is just a dump site,” Willis said.

Members of the Tifton Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations were also on the scene.

As with any unexplained death, the incident will be treated with suspicion.

Chief Criminal Investigator Bobby Brannen of the TCSD and an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were interviewing neighbors for information.

Lynn Mosely, a neighbor who lives on Ferry Lake Road, said she walks daily down the dirt road past two mobile homes near where the woman’s body was found.

“I have been smelling a foul odor for four or five days and just thought it was a dead animal,” Mosely said.

Mosely said the incident has caused her to be afraid and she will not walk alone down the road in the future.

“Now, at night, someone will be walking with me,” Mosely said.

The woman’s body was found near a pond and two mobile homes near Beverly Health Care and G.O. Bailey School. Mosely said she believed the mobile homes were vacant.



To contact reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321, ext. 208.