The remains of a woman’s body found hanging by a chain from a tree in the 1800 block of Twisted Oak Avenue in east Norman have been tentatively identified by tattoos, according to Norman police.
Police are awaiting confirmation of the woman’s identity based on dental records and notification of next of kin before releasing her name, they said.
The body was discovered Sunday evening by about nine kids, ranging in age from 6 to 16. The body was found in a wooded area near a creek bottom filled with dense trees and underbrush, police said.
“It is an ideal place for kids to hang out and play,” said Norman Police Lt. Tom Easley. “Indications are that the body’s been there for several months.
“The kids obviously didn’t think the body was real,” Easley said.
The kids apparently took the body down and dragged parts of it to two separate locations in the nearby Twisted Oak Apartment complex.
“Some of the body parts probably fell off in the motion of taking it down from its hanging position, and dragging it through the wooded area and parking lot,” Easley said. The remains were taken to two separate locations in the complex before a witness in the 1900 block of Twisted Oak Avenue notified Norman police.
The incident is being investigated as a suspicious death or homicide, which is standard protocol at the onset of a fatality investigation, Easley said. “It’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that it was a suicide.”
The medical examiner will make the final determination as to cause of death, he said.
http://www.normantranscript.com/story.php?story_id=8878&c=1
Police are awaiting confirmation of the woman’s identity based on dental records and notification of next of kin before releasing her name, they said.
The body was discovered Sunday evening by about nine kids, ranging in age from 6 to 16. The body was found in a wooded area near a creek bottom filled with dense trees and underbrush, police said.
“It is an ideal place for kids to hang out and play,” said Norman Police Lt. Tom Easley. “Indications are that the body’s been there for several months.
“The kids obviously didn’t think the body was real,” Easley said.
The kids apparently took the body down and dragged parts of it to two separate locations in the nearby Twisted Oak Apartment complex.
“Some of the body parts probably fell off in the motion of taking it down from its hanging position, and dragging it through the wooded area and parking lot,” Easley said. The remains were taken to two separate locations in the complex before a witness in the 1900 block of Twisted Oak Avenue notified Norman police.
The incident is being investigated as a suspicious death or homicide, which is standard protocol at the onset of a fatality investigation, Easley said. “It’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that it was a suicide.”
The medical examiner will make the final determination as to cause of death, he said.
http://www.normantranscript.com/story.php?story_id=8878&c=1