PEVELY, Mo. – The mushroom hunter who found a woman’s body in the woods Sunday night described the moments leading up to the tragic discovery.
Two days after the body of a woman was discovered in the woods, police are calling it a suspicious death. The remains are believed to be evidence of the city’s first murder since the 90s.
“When you’re in a community that is a close-knit community, it’s a shock,” said Chief Mark Glenn for the Pevely Police Department.
Pevely police and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office await autopsy results from the medical examiner to find out the age and name of the woman, who is currently unidentified.
“That emotional part hit me because whoever it is—somebody’s family member—is someone’s friend,” Glenn said.
The person who made the tragic discovery was looking for something else—morel mushrooms. Coincidentally, this marks the second time a Missouri mushroom hunter has found remains over the past week. The first one happened in northern Missouri.
“I was walking up the hill, and I was coming near this long tree that was laid over,” said Jill Rodgers, a woman who found the body. “There was something huge laying down on the ground. There was a moving blanket, so I pulled that back. I took a big tree limb and lifted it up, and it clearly looked like a foot, a human foot.”
She said she was still in shock.
“I walk this every single year, and to find something like this, you don’t if you’re safe in your neighborhood,” Rodgers said. “You don’t know who did it.”
The wooded area where the body was found is remote, but of the neighbors in the mobile home park that borders it, some express uneasiness since it was found in their backyard.
“We feel unsafe,” said neighbor Kelly Rekete. “I would never assume it would happen, especially this close.”
“I felt like it was angel brought me so that this family can get closure,” Rodgers said.
This is an ongoing investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to call the police.