Cause Of Death, ID Of Mummified Body Found In Detroit Garage Will Take Weeks To Determine
DETROIT (WWJ) - It will be a while longer before police know anything more about a mummified body that was found in a Detroit garage.
An anthropologist from the University of Michigan was brought in by the Wayne County Medical Examiner to perform the autopsy, because the remains were so decomposed.
Officials said late Tuesday night that the anthropologist studied the mummified body but nothing will be released until she writes her report, which could take two to three weeks. Until then, the identification and cause and manner of death remain pending.
The severely decomposed body was discovered last Thursday, face-down inside a car parked inside a garage, by a prospective home buyer. Lloyd Jackson, a spokesperson for the medical examiner's officer, said the dark, leathery bones were covered in a sweater, shirt and pants.
"When a body is mummified, it is passed the decomposition stages," Jackson said. "When a body decomposes it brings about flies and those things, but it's passed that stage and it's like the bones are really brown, like a dark brown — like leathery almost."
The tenants told police they knew nothing about the body because the owner told them not the use the garage.