Body found in wooded area near Riverwood Avenue

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Bowling Green police opened a death investigation Monday morning after someone found human remains in a wooded area in the 200 block of Riverwood Avenue, authorities said.

The remains were found in a wood line behind a Kroger on the U.S. 31-W Bypass, Bowling Green Police Department spokesman Officer Ronnie Ward said. Crime scene processors collected evidence at the scene.

“We do know that there is heavy decomposition on the body,” Ward said. “That doesn’t really give us an estimation of exactly how long. Hopefully the medical examiner during autopsy will be able to tell us an approximate time of death.”

Ward described the remains as “skeletal.” Police were working earlier today to determine the identity of the person.

Crime scene processors were expected late this morning to remain on scene for several hours.

The crime scene is “relatively a small area. All of the remains are very close together. We will expand out four or five times of what the smaller area to make sure we don’t miss something,” he said.

“Where this scene is is in between the storage units that are off of Riverwood and Kroger so there’s a small wooded area there that runs straight from the street all the way back to where the bridge is, and the remains are located in that just off to the left of the storage area,” Ward said referring to a pedestrian bridge behind Kroger.

Ward said it is too soon to determine the manner death.

“This is going to be a scene that’s going to be difficult to process just because of the area, the nature of the decomposition and the lack of clues at this point.