FROM STAFF REPORTS

The Iredell County Sheriff’s Office has opened a homicide investigation after a body was found off Parkertown Road near Troutman on Thursday evening.

The ICSO received a missing person report earlier Thursday about an individual who had not been seen for several days, Sheriff Darren Campbell said.

Deputies received information about several locations that the individual, whose name has not been released, was known to frequent. When deputies went to the area off Parkertown Road, south of Troutman, they found a body that had been concealed, the sheriff said.

Deputies secured the area, and ICSO crime scene investigators responded to the scene and began collecting evidence.

“Investigators have been out at the scene since about 9:30 last night and are still working,” Campbell said Friday afternoon.

The body was transported to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, where an autopsy will be conducted next week.

Campbell said the body had not been positively identified as of Friday afternoon.