Passerby discovers decomposing body hidden among storm debris

wwltv.com ^ | 10/21/05

[Ellesu]

New Orleans Police are trying to identify a body which was found Friday morning among debris left over from Hurricane Katrina.

At about 9 a.m., someone on North Rampart and Elysian Fields found the body on the neutral ground and flagged down some National Guard troops.

The body had been put in a trunk and was badly decomposed.

Authorities have not identified the body, and were unsure of the gender of the body. Police ruled it an unclassified death as of Friday afternoon.

[The_Victor]

Any Friends-of-Bill missing?

[Red Badger]

The body had been put in a trunk and was badly decomposed.

Jimmy Hoffa?............

[TXBubba]

I don't know. It didn't say the trunk was closed. Maybe someone just layed it in there to keep it from getting eaten by alligators. New Orleans has the potential for becoming a real life ghost town. I can already imagine the stories of bodies being found in strange places for the next several years.

[smonk]

the body was later identified as the political future of kathleen blanco.

[Blue Jays]

Hi All-

Looks like there will be another telephone call to request dental records...

~ Blue Jays ~

[robowombat]

Very interesting indeed as I don't think there was any flooding in this area at all. This is near Colton High School which had no water get in other than what beat in under windows or leaks in the roof.

[Red Badger]

Bodies have been found in strange places in New Orleans for the past 250 years.........

[mtbopfuyn]

What is neutral ground? So someone just happened along and opened the trunk or the trunk was open already? I don't imagine just laying an already dead body in an open trunk would keep out gators. The police named it unclassified? Something smells and not just the body.

[TXBubba]

True. I'm just thinking that these bodies may be more a result of the recent natural disaster than crime. No telling where folks floated away and landed.

[Red Badger]

I wonder how many people took advantage of the storm to settle some scores?...............

[LizardQueen]

What is neutral ground?

In New Orleans the "neutral ground" is the median strip of the road, the grassy area down the middle that sometimes has a guard rail on it.

LQ

[Ellesu]

Not saying it's related. Have no idea, just posting this for information...

http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=4009788


His badly decomposed body was found in a ditch in a remote area, circumstances similar to up to 18 male deaths being investigated in connection with a possible southeast Louisiana serial killer. Several of those bodies were found in ditches or cane fields.

[mtbopfuyn]

Ok, just trying to figure this out. There was no flooding in the area so can we assume people came back to their homes or at least started the clean up shortly after Katrina? The body has been out in what's basically the open and no one found him until now? Hmm, are the police sure the vehicle has been there the entire time or was it recently moved there? Serial killer or settling old scores.

[alnick]

What is neutral ground?

Neutral ground is the New Orleans term for median.

[wigswest]

Bodies have been found in strange places in New Orleans for the past 250 years.........

LOL, I grew up believing that Lake Ponchartrain was where the NOLA mafia dumped their bodies....

[caryatid]

Neutral [pronounced noo' trl] ground has already been defined. Ostensibly it originated as the median in the boulevard [Canal Street] that divided the French Quarter [downriver] from the American Sector [uptown] and was considered to be, literally, neutral ground or territory.

Another word still widely used colloquialy, that is worth mentioning, is banquette [pronounced bank' it], which means sidewalk.

[caryatid]

Bodies have been found in strange places in New Orleans for the past 250 years.........

........ while many other bodies were never found. LOL

[Knitting A Conundrum]

You don't know how hard it is for me after not living in New Orleans 12 years to not call a median a neutral ground still...nobody would know what I meant, so I bite my tongue and sneak out median...

And I don't know any word in the American dialect that I can substitute for lagniappe...and it's a sorry thing.

And try to explain what a chiffarobe is...