Residents reported foul smell

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

City police are investigating a possible homicide after a decomposed male body was found Saturday night in a wooded area behind a home in the 100 block of East Philadelphia Avenue.

Police found the body in the South Side neighborhood after receiving a report at 5:50 p.m. from a resident about a foul odor coming from a vacant home.

The investigation of the report led to the discovery of the deceased in a wooded area behind the home.

Police called the Mahoning County coroner and the crime lab to the scene. As of Sunday, the body had not been identified, police said.

If the death is ruled a homicide, it would be the city’s 15th of 2015 and the 10th on the city’s South Side this year.

The last homicide in the city occurred Aug. 22 when a man was found shot to death in the backyard of a vacant North Side home in the 100 block of Saranac Avenue. A couple had been renovating the home to get it ready to rent. Police said the couple left early the evening before and noticed nothing unusual at that time.

The body was spotted by a mailman.

Youngstown recorded 19 homicides in 2014.

The homicide rate has dropped significantly in the city over the years. Twenty years ago, in 1995, Youngstown recorded 68 homicides.