Woman’s body found behind abandoned house

Photos: Body found behind house

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By Amelia Robinson, Staff Writer Updated 8:20 AM Monday, March 15, 2010

DAYTON — Homicide detectives were summoned to the rear of an abandoned Warder Street house on Sunday, March 14, after five young boys playing nearby spotted a woman’s body in the backyard.

Investigators believe the woman, who had no identification, had been dead a few days before being found behind 58 Warder St. shortly before 3 p.m.

The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office will conduct an autopsy.

Dayton police Sgt. Mark Spiers said there was no obvious cause of death or any indication the body had been moved to the back yard.

“It looks like this is where she collapsed,” said Spiers, noting there is no missing person report that matches the woman’s description.

The woman was white, 45 to 50 years old and wearing blue jeans, a black T-shirt and white tennis shoes with a red design. She had graying black hair.

The boys spotted her lying face up in the back yard below a rusted metal fire escape and near a rundown garage.

She had been bleeding from the left eye and her pants were partially undone, neighborhood residents said.

The house has been abandoned for at least eight years, said Victoria McNeal, president of the River dale Neighborhood Association. The home’s front porch is crumbling, its windows broken and its interior is gutted.

Three houses next to it also are dilapidated and boarded up. One bears the scars of a recent fire.

The boys who made the discovery — ages 6 to 9 — were running behind one of the adjacent abandoned houses when they spotted the body.

McNeal said keeping drug users, children and vagrants away from the abandoned properties is a constant struggle.

“It’s horrible, people get in there and do whatever,” she said, adding that there are at least 200 abandoned properties in the area.

The discovery of the woman’s body drew neighborhood attention.

Nearby resident Anna Purks was one of the first adults on the scene.

She said it was tragic that the boys made the discovery.

“They are just babies. They don’t need to see something like this,” she said.

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