Deputies: Body found in the woods in Lancaster Co.

LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — Detectives are having a difficult time identifying a body found in a Lancaster County field because it has been there for so long. Children found it off of Wade Street on Saturday morning.

After the 911 call led investigators to the body, the body was brought to the Lancaster County coroner's office.

Rayford Chappell, who saw the body after it was discovered, said the woods are not any place he wants to be.

"You hear stuff back there all the time but I try to stay out of there as much as possible," he said.

But Saturday, some neighborhood kids ventured back to the dirt road off of Wade Street in search of a family dog that got loose. That is when they made a gruesome discovery.

"They come back up here and said they found a something. They thought it was a body," said Chappell.

He said he walked back to check and that is when he said he saw human remains, covered in leaves and brush.

"That's somebody's kid who knows what I'm saying," he said.

He could not tell if there was any trauma or if any personal items were lying around.

Eyewitness News followed up with investigators.

They said the remains were almost skeletal and looked like they had been there for four to six weeks.

Investigators do not know if they belong to a male or female and they don't know anything else that would reveal an identity.

Chappell is just concerned about how the person got there and what could have happened.

"This is just in my backyard. I got kids out here. There are kids all up and down this road," he said.

Investigators are now sifting through missing persons reports, hoping that could help them identify this person while trying to figure out how the person died.

WSOC