06:35 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Seth Fox / Houma Courier

HOUMA – Local authorities are investigating the discovery of a body found Tuesday morning in a drainage canal near Bayou Grand Caillou.

Dave McNamara / WWL-TV

A survey crew found the body face down in a drainage ditch.

The body, which was discovered by a group of surveyors shortly before 9:30 this morning, has not been identified, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said.

The body was found just past the Terrebonne Parish jail near Grand Caillou Middle School.

The remains were badly decomposed, Larpenter said, though authorities have determined it’s the body of a man. The race of the body can not be discerned, Larpenter said.

Other law-enforcement agencies have been called into the investigation, Larpenter said, because of circumstances surrounding the death that mirror those of victims along the U.S. 90 corridor. A string of deaths going back several years could possibly be the work of a single killer, authorities have said. The dead were all men, mostly from Houma, whose bodies were found dumped in remote areas of Terrebonne Parish and along the highway between here and New Orleans.

The discovery this morning is not yet considered a homicide, Larpenter said, but the death is considered unnatural. Police are also taking into account the remoteness of the spot where the body was found.

An autopsy is expected to take place this afternoon or Wednesday morning, Larpenter said.