Detroit home buyer finds mummified body during inspection: ‘They don’t know if it’s male or female’

A seemingly mundane home inspection for a potential home buyer in Detroit turned grisly on Thursday when a mummified body turned up inside the garage.

Police told The Detroit News on Friday that investigators are trying to determine whose decomposing body was in a 1990 or 1991 Plymouth Acclaim on the 19900 block of Spencer. The potential buyer found a “brown” body, which may have been inside the vehicle for “years.”

“At this point, they don’t know if it’s male or female, or cause or manner of death or anything like that,” Lloyd Jackson, a spokesman for Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office, told the newspaper. “That’s when the anthropologist comes in and checks it out. They didn’t do an autopsy. They just did an inspection because that’s usually what they do when they get these bodies that have been really badly decomposed or mummified.”

Authorities said an anthropologist from the University of Michigan will jointly examine the corpse with county partners to determine the body’s sex.

“We talked to the current tenants of that location and they were told that the actual homeowners had said they basically don’t go in the garage, don’t put anything in the garage,” Detroit Police spokesman Dan Donakowski added. “I know this is an open investigation and I know we’re going to do a thorough investigation on it, but we obviously have to find out what went on.”