Marion County Officials Discover Decomposed Body

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Published on November 9 2015 3:16 pm
Last Updated on November 9 2015 3:16 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

The Marion County Coroner's Office is investigating the death of a badly decomposed body discovered in a wooded area near the intersection of I-57 and Illinois 161, east of Centralia, on Sunday afternoon.

The skeltonized remains were discovered during a search effort with several K-9 units of a regional search and rescue group. The Marion County Sheriff's Department requested the search.

Marion County Coroner Troy Cannon was summoned and determined the remains were human and initiated an investigated shortly before 3pm Sunday.

The remains have been tentatively identified as those of 38-year-old Cameron Garden of Salem. Garden went missing following a traffic crash in March, after which he fled the scene on foot. Accident reports at the time indicated the man who fled the scene of the crash collided with a pickup truck on Illinois 161, a quarter-mile east of Raccoon Grade School. Deputies reported heavy damage to both vehicles, but did not believe there were any injuries.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday to conclusively identify the remains and to determine a cause of death.