Tip leads Alabama police to discover body buried under house ‘almost deeper than a grave at cemetery’
Published 10:29 pm Friday, January 14, 2022
A man’s remains were found eight feet under an abandoned home in Alabama and likely were there more than two years, authorities said.
The remains, which have yet to be identified, were discovered Thursday in the Georgetown community in western Mobile County, Mobile County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Bailey told news outlets.
“In my 23 years in law enforcement, I’ve never seen a body disposed of under a structure and then the floor put back, and buried at that depth,” Bailey said. “That’s almost deeper than a grave at a cemetery.”
A tipster alerted authorities to the body, Bailey said.
“The floor was taken up… the body was buried and the floor was replaced,” he said. “No one would ever think to look under the house of an abandoned residence. We appreciate the information that led us here. Anyone else that we have not interviewed that may have information would be helpful to us.”
Authorities believe the body was buried around December 2020.
“The remains have been here going on 14 months so there is a good bit of decomposition and other factor that just make identification impossible at this time,” Bailey said.
The sheriff’s office said investigators believe the body is that of a man reported missing in 2020. Deputies had tried to find that person on two previous visits to the house but stopped digging because of concerns about whether the house would hold up.