Mayes County Sheriff’s Office Investigates Body Found In Ditch

The Mayes County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a suspicious death, after a farmer discovered a body in a ditch.

Deputies said they are not calling it a murder as of now but are investigating the death as if it were.

Deputies said they believe the victim is a woman said they believe she has been here for at least 3 weeks. They are waiting for the Medical Examiner's report to identify the body.

“You know this is someone's daughter, someone's sister, someone's granddaughter so we want to try to advocate for this victim as best as we can,” Major Rod Howell with the Mayes County Sheriff's Office. "We are still trying to learn more. Obviously, the body was at the point where we could not recognize. The body could not be identified."

Deputies said they are waiting on the Medical Examiners report to hopefully figure out who the person is and how they died.  Right now they said they are investigating this like a homicide. 

 "We are deeming this a suspicious scene. Just because of the remote area that it's at. Obviously in the circumstances,” said Major Howell. 

Major Howell said the body was found on Muscogee Creek Nation land. 

He said because of the recent McGirt ruling, this is currently a joint investigation with Creek nation, FBI and Mayes County  until they figure out if this will be a state or federal case.

Major Howell said they are following some leads and hope the ME will give them answers. 

"We are going through some data bases to see if there's any missing persons obviously in the tri-county area. Even further than that because 69 is fairly close to where this body was located at,” said Howell. 

Deputies said if anyone knows of anyone missing, call the Mayes county Sheriff's Office at 918-825-3535.