Police Find Body In Muskogee After Dog Reported Carrying Hand - NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com |

A dog lead Muskogee Police to a gruesome discovery, Friday afternoon. A badly decomposed body was found in a wooded area.

Police say a city worker noticed a dog carrying a human hand in its mouth.

They say they have not yet determined the exact age, sex, or race of the deceased.

The worker called police and a search was immediately underway.

Jerry Washington has lived all of his life in Muskogee.

He describes his north side neighborhood as quiet and nice, but that was disrupted Friday afternoon.

"This whole neighborhood was just chaos with police officers," Washington said. "It's quite disturbing. It's unsettling."

Around 1 p.m., Muskogee Police got a call about a possible dead body.

Police say a dog found a hand from a badly decomposed person. The dog dropped the hand in front of the houses on the 600 block of North 12th Street in Muskogee.

After a city worker called it in, K-9 units traced the hand back to a wooded area across the street.

"If anything happens up on that hill, nobody knows about it," said resident Charles Williams. "It's real wooded. What the city doesn't mow is really wooded."

Muskogee Police are not sure how long the body has been out there.

Right now, the department's number one priority is identifying the deceased and determining the cause of death.

"At this point, we don't have any signs of foul play. We're still looking into that. That is an option, but right now we don't have any suspects or things like that," said Muskogee Police Officer Pedro Zardeneta.

With a lot of questions still unanswered, Washington said it's important for people in the neighborhood to keep their eyes and ears open.

"You just have to be vigilant and keep an eye on your neighbors and watch out for your neighbors, and do the best you can," Washington said.

The state Medical Examiner is assisting with the investigation.

Muskogee Police say they do have a lot of open missing person cases, but, at this time, they have not linked this death to any of those cases.