HEMPSTEAD COUNTY, Ark. – Hempstead County detectives are investigating a death after a “badly decomposed” body was discovered aboard a train that delivered corn to a Tyson plant in southwest Arkansas on Monday.
The freight train arrived before dawn at a Typson facility near the town of Hope in Hempstead County. Employees were unloading the shipment of corn from a train car at about 4:20 a.m. when a human arm was spotted in an unloading chute beneath the car, KSLA News 12 reported.
Workers immediately called the Hempstead County Sheriff’s Office and deputies responded to the scene. They opened the top of the grain car and discovered human remains wedged in the bottom of the empty cargo conveyer.
Law enforcement authorities were unable to retrieve the body, so they summoned the help of the Red River Wrecker Service.
“They gained access through the top of the car by lowering a cable through the car and moving a piece of metal out of the way,” reported KSLA.
Finally, authorities managed to remove the body, which was described as an adult male of an unknown age.
His body was “badly [de]composed,” according to witnesses at the scene.
The news outlet shared images on Facebook of investigators working the crime scene.
Investigators did not locate identification on the man, reported The Western Journal.
According to Kiamichi railroad officials, the train delivered a shipment of beans in Mexico a few days before it was dispatched to Missouri where it was filled with corn. Once the corn was loaded it traveled to the Tyson facility in Arkansas.
The Hempstead County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the man’s death. A coroner with the Arkansas State Crime Lab will perform an autopsy to determine the man’s cause and manner of death.
Tyson has not issued a statement regarding the discovery.
