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No ID yet for body found in house

Individual had been there for ‘an extended period’

PARKERSBURG — The West Virginia Medical Examiner has so far been unable to identify a body found last week in a vacant home on St. Marys Avenue.

The autopsy was completed Wednesday on the body found Friday by three juvenile males at 1705 St. Marys Ave. Parkersburg Police Chief Joe Martin said that based on decomposition and weather conditions, it appears the body had been in the house for “an extended period of time.”

“We don’t believe (it’s) a local person,” said Martin, who declined to release the gender of the individual.

Cause of death remains undetermined as well.

“There was no obvious signs of trauma or evidence that would lead us to conclude how (the person) died,” Martin said.

The next step will be for the medical examiner’s office to try to identify the individual by fingerprints, as well as attempt a toxicology report. Based on the prolonged period for which the body was in the house, there’s a chance neither will work, the chief said.

The main priority for the investigation at this point is to identify the individual, notify that person’s next of kin and work the case from that angle, Martin said.

The body was found in the house one day after another unidentified body was discovered in a car burning along Badgley Fork Road in Mineral Wells. Assistant Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure said Wednesday that there was no update on that case.

Staff writer Michael Erb contributed to this story.

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