A badly decomposed body was found by an Aurora homeowner in a box in his backyard, police spokesman Marcus Dudley said.
Police are investigating the find as a suspicious death, Dudley said.
Next-door neighbor Pat Johnson said the plastic box, which is 2- to 3-feet deep and about 4 feet wide, belonged to a man who formerly lived at the house but has been gone about two years and is now incarcerated.
Johnson said her brother- in-law, Richard Johnson, lives at the house, at 1325 Lansing St., and he was moving several boxes belonging to a former roommate named “JD” in order to put in a new sewer line.
Dudley said the homeowner first smelled the decomposing body, then found it. He called police.
Tuesday night, police were interviewing the residents of the house and searching the premises, Dudley said.
The gender, race and age of the victim couldn’t be determined, he said.
Johnson said her brother-in-law had invited JD to live with him and his 90-year-old mother in the single-story brown-and-white house on Lansing more than two years ago when his friend had been evicted from where he had been living.
However, JD was convicted of forging checks belonging to her elderly mother-in-law, and he is currently incarcerated, Johnson said.
She said she went over to the boxes Tuesday to see what the commotion was about.
“I thought he was going to show me a box of dead animals, but I saw a long bone and a foot,” Johnson said. “She was wrapped in a comforter.”
Johnson said she thinks the victim was a woman because she saw a necklace or bracelet on the body.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
