Prisoners find decomposed body while cleaning up roadside trash in Sequatchie County

State prisoners cleaning up trash on Highway 111 Thursday afternoon had the unpleasant surprise of stumbling over a corpse.

Sequatchie County Sheriff Ronnie Hitchcock said his office was called to the scene around noon and found the badly decomposed body 15-20 feet down an embankment off of the highway's southbound lanes.

A mixture of rain, sun and other natural factors had decayed the body to the point that race and gender could not easily be determined. No one has been reported missing in the area.

"We still don't have a clue who it could be," Hitchcock said.

Crews worked the same stretch of road on March 1 and there was no body then, so authorities reason it was left there sometime in the last two months.

TBI is heading the investigation and the body has been sent to Nashville for further examination.

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