Officials investigating body found in Anson Co. as homicide

WADESBORO, N.C. — Police are investigating after a body was found outside a vacant building along a busy highway in Anson County.

PHOTOS: Man's body found in Wadesboro

Officers said a man's body was found in the parking lot near the building along Highway 74, just east of Highway 52 in Wadesboro after midnight Tuesday.

On Wednesday, officials told reporter Blake Hanson the death of Phillip Burgess, 53, as a homicide.

Investigators are looking into but haven't confirmed a report that people were seen fleeing the area where a man's body was found early Tuesday morning, according to police.

The news came after 911 caller Amelia Burr told Eyewitness News she saw people flee the area as she drove by the location along Highway 74 in her car.

Burr said she spotted the body and turned around. When she came back she thought the victim might have been hit in the street.

"When I turned around and came back his shoes were in the middle of the road and I thought he got hit by a car and they left him," she said.

Burr said she called 911 and spotted people at the scene but they took off.

Many questions remain following the discovery of the body in front of a barber shop and storage building near Highway 74 just east of Highway 52. Officials have not said how the man died or if it's being investigated as a homicide, a hit-and-run or something else. Early on, police deemed the death suspicious.

Breaking: Wadesboro Police investigating after finding man's body in parking lot along Hwy 74. @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/JvF6gHcpCA
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Family members said they don’t know why he would have been there at that time.

Wadesboro police are asking anyone who might have been in the area between 11:15 p.m. Monday and 12:20 a.m. Tuesday to contact investigators. Police say it would have been unusual for anyone to be walking along that area.