UPDATE | Police, coroner investigate remains found on the North Side

YOUNGSTOWN — Police and the Mahoning County Coroner's Office are trying to determine the identity of a body found about 10 p.m. Friday on the North Side.

Lt. Doug Bobovnyik of the Detective Bureau said a man who used to live on Wydesteel Avenue was walking through the vacant lot of his old home when he discovered a body next to a fence.

The man took the skull to the police station and detectives and police went to the site Friday evening, Bobovnyik said. They returned to the site today at daylight along with Dr. Joseph Ohr of the coroner's office to excavate the site.

Bobovnyik said the body appears that to be of a black male between 19 and 35 years old, between 5-foot-6-inches and and 5-foot-9-inches. There was also a jacket discovered with the body.

The body was found in an area on the street where several houses have been torn down recently, Bobovnyik said. The street is off of Logan Avenue next to the old General Fireproofing plant.

There was no obvious sign of how the man died, Bobovnyik said. He said the coroner will have to examine the body to see if a cause of death can be found.

"There is nothing to indicate a cause of death at this point and time," Bobovnyik said.

Bobovnyik said investigators believe the body has been there for at least a year.

Detectives are going through missing persons reports to see if they can find a lead on who the person might be.

Anyone with information can call the detective bureau at 330 742-8911, the non-emergency number for the police department at 330 742-8900 or the patrol supervisor at 330-742-8950.