After overnight probe, details scant on body found

A substance that appears to be dried blood on the side of Long Swamp Road near where a body was found on Saturday. (Harrison Thorp photo)

LEBANON – An autopsy is scheduled later today to determine the cause of death of a young man whose body was found alongside Long Swamp Road on Saturday.

State Police said in a brief press release earlier today that the man appeared to be in his 20s, but had no identification on him.

The woman who found the body was walking her dog and picking up bottles along the road around 4 p.m. on Saturday when she said her dog smelled something and alerted her to the body, which she said was turned over on its stomach about five feet off the side of the road.

“There was a lot of blood,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified.

There was no crime tape or markers indicating where the body was found, but there was what appeared to be dried blood spotted on the road about 50 feet from the south end of a frog pond located about three tenths of a mile south of Lord Road.

Long Swamp road resident Marty Beatrice said he noticed a suspicious car parked in the area where the body was found around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. He said the car had out-of-state plates that weren’t familiar to him and almost called police but didn’t.

He said the road was closed for a period of time last night around 9 p.m. and police didn’t leave until around 4 a.m. this morning.

Another road resident, Brian Smith, said a detective came to his door late yesterday afternoon and asked him if he had heard or seen anything suspicious.

“We never saw anything,” Smith said. “It’s pretty unsettling, happening so close to home.”

State Police have released no additional information since their initial press release early this morning around 2:30 a.m.