Dunklin County officers see few leads in murder probe

Daily Dunklin Democrat

KENNETT, Mo. -- Law enforcement officers have a lot of questions and few answers as they investigate the death of a young man whose body was found in a roadside ditch near Kennett on Wednesday.

While the victim remains unidentified, his death has been ruled a homicide.

"We are following up on leads," Dunklin County Sheriff Bob Holder said Thursday. "We do have some leads and we're going back over some of the leads we have received."

Holder said no identification was found on the body.

He described the victim as a black man in his late teens or early 20s.

Investigators have said they have no reason to believe the victim was from the immediate area. There have been no reports from local or area law enforcement agencies of anyone missing who matches the victim's description.

An Independence Township employee grading the gravel section of Johnson Island Road discovered the body.

Authorities went to the scene on Johnson Island Road where they found the naked body of the young man lying in the water-filled ditch.

The Kennett Fire Department was called in to pump water from the ditch as law enforcement officers began their investigation of the crime.

Authorities have said the cut on the man's neck, reported Wednesday, was not the fatal wound as it appears that the man may have been fatally stabbed. The exact cause of death, however, awaits the results of a forensic examination in Farmington, Mo., where an autopsy was expected to be performed Thursday.

"It has been over a year since we've had a homicide in Dunklin County," Holder said.