A woman cleaning out a detached garage in the 500 block of Hathaway Street made a grisly discovery before police responded just before noon Sunday, finding human remains in an advanced state of decomposition. Owensboro police say the identity of the deceased and the manner of death remain undetermined as investigators await the results of a forensic examination.
Patrol officers responded just before noon on Oct. 5, 2025 to a suspicious-circumstance call in the 500 block of Hathaway Street, according to the Owensboro Police Department. Once on scene, officers confirmed the presence of human remains that appeared to be in an advanced state of decomposition, the department said in a news release. Detectives from the Criminal Investigations Division, crime scene technicians from the Evidence Collection Unit, and the Daviess County Coroner's Office all responded to process the scene.
Police said the woman who found the remains had been cleaning out the detached garage at the time. Beyond that detail, officials have released little about the circumstances surrounding the discovery, including who owns the property or how long the remains may have been there.
Identity and Cause of Death Remain Unknown
The Owensboro Police Department said the identity of the deceased and the manner of death remain undetermined at this time and are pending a forensic examination. The department added that further updates would be released as information becomes available, leaving the central questions in the case unanswered for now.
The Messenger-Inquirer also reported on the Hathaway Street discovery. The case remains open as detectives wait on forensic findings to move the investigation forward.
Conflicting Reports on Where and When
Details about this case have circulated with some inconsistency. The Cleveland, Ohio Remembrance Page on Facebook described the discovery as happening in Cleveland, writing in a post on its Facebook page that a “badly decomposed body was found inside a garage on Hathaway.” That account, dated Oct. 5, 2026, differs from the Owensboro Police Department's official record of the incident, which places the garage on Hathaway Street in Owensboro and dates the response to Oct. 5, 2025. Hoodline is presenting both versions here because the underlying records conflict, and neither can be confirmed to supersede the other based on the available information.
Discoveries of human remains found during property cleanouts have made headlines elsewhere in recent months, though those cases are unrelated to the Owensboro incident. A bulk disposal crew discovered a body beneath a mattress while clearing out a garage on Cleveland's West Side, according to WKYC. Separately, possible human remains were found at a home being cleaned out on Cleveland's East Side, with the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office responding, per News 5 Cleveland.
For now, the Owensboro case remains open, with no identity confirmed and no determination made on how the person died. Investigators have said only that updates will follow as the forensic examination progresses.
