Body of an adult found in New Orleans' 9th Ward could be a

NEW ORLEANS (AP) Workers demolishing damaged houses found a body thought to be that of a Hurricane Katrina victim, authorities said.<br/><br/>The body, believed to be an adult, was found Wednesday night

Sunday, December 3rd 2006, 5:37 pm

By: News On 6

NEW ORLEANS (AP) Workers demolishing damaged houses found a body thought to be that of a Hurricane Katrina victim, authorities said.

The body, believed to be an adult, was found Wednesday night in a yard in the devastated Lower 9th Ward, Orleans Parish chief coroner's investigator John Gagliano said. Its gender and identity are unknown.

Gagliano said a pathologist and an anthropologist will examine the remains, and the coroner's office will consult records to see whether anyone was reported missing at St. Maurice Avenue and North Robertson Street.

It could be the 28th Katrina body found in New Orleans since March, when a federal mortuary service shut down and turned the collection of bodies over to the coroner's office. The last body was discovered July 31, bringing the death toll from Katrina to 1,697.

Gagliano also said coroner's officials found houses in that neighborhood that did not appear ever to have been entered since the August 29, 2005, storm flooded the neighborhood, and that volunteers from several city agencies will search those areas.