NewsMay 20, 2016
Body found Thursday at Ranney Park in Cape
Police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found Thursday afternoon near Ranney Park.
Police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found Thursday afternoon near Ranney Park.
A man was doing yard work in a field around a wooded area southeast of the park when he found the body at 4:11 p.m., said Adam Glueck, public-information officer for the Cape Girardeau Police Department.
Coroner John Clifton, who was on the scene, said the identity of the man had yet to be determined.
Glueck said the cause of death still is being investigated, and police had not determined whether the body had been moved or how long it had been there.
The Cape Girardeau/Bollinger County Major Case Squad has been activated.
Investigators still were processing the scene Thursday night, including multiple men in full-body hazmat suits.
Before setting up a tent in front of the wooded area, officers brought a cylindrical light out of the woods.
The tent was placed between the Major Case Squad trailer, which was being used for evidence collection, and the woods.
Multiple officers appeared to be gathering evidence in the woods, but it was unclear what type of evidence was being collected.
More than 20 uniformed and plainclothes officers from the Cape Girardeau Police Department and Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department were on the scene.
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There were about 30 bystanders at the scene, many of whom identified themselves as family of the man who was found.
Some walked back and forth, up and down an adjacent hill at the park, and mentioned they had yet to hear anything from police.
A bystander identified one man as the father of the man who was found. The man got into a patrol car with two officers, and when he exited the vehicle, he spiked a two-liter bottle of soda to the ground in apparent anger.
He quickly went up the hill in the street, yelling to other bystanders, and was joined by most of the crowd.
A bystander also identified a woman at the scene as the dead man’s wife. She cried as other members of the group consoled her. As she and the man who had spoken with officers in the patrol car left, there was a exodus of vehicles from the scene.
Family members said the victim was a 27-year-old Cape Girardeau man who had been missing since Saturday.
After talking to police, they were sure the body that was found was their relative, according to one family member. That family member said police told them the man who was found had been shot.
bkleine@semissourian.com
(573) 388-2644
Pertinent address:
Ranney Park, Cape Girardeau, Mo.
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