Human remains were discovered inside a garbage can in the south suburbs on Sunday morning, according to police. Chicago Heights officers responded to a call about suspicious circumstances near Chicago Road and Elmwood Drive just after 11:45 a.m., and officers on scene confirmed that remains had been found.
The remains were transported to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office for examination and had not been immediately identified, according to ABC7 Chicago. No further details about the person's identity, age, or how they died have been released.
Multiple Agencies Now Involved
The Chicago Heights Police Investigations Division is handling the case alongside the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, the station reports. Chicago Heights police asked anyone with information to call them at 708-756-6400.
The task force assisting with the investigation operates under the command of the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department and the Illinois State Police, according to the Village of Richton Park. It supervises 54 south suburban police departments and has roughly 150 investigators assigned to it, giving Chicago Heights detectives a deep bench of resources as they work to identify the remains and piece together what happened.
Not the First Such Discovery This Year
Chicago Heights was not the only community to confront this kind of grim discovery in 2026, though the other cases were in Chicago's South Side neighborhoods. In late July, human remains were found inside a garbage can in an alley in the 300 block of East 68th Street in Greater Grand Crossing, with the remains located at 9:25 a.m. that Monday, as reported by Block Club Chicago. A police report described those remains as two skeletonized legs and parts of a skull, according to the Tribune, and detectives opened a death investigation pending autopsy results.
Earlier that same month, the body of a woman identified as Zenobia Weatherspoon was found inside a garbage can in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on Chicago's South Side on July 11, the outlet noted. The dossier evidence does not establish any connection between those Chicago cases and the discovery in Chicago Heights, nor does it confirm a broader pattern across the region.
For now, the Chicago Heights investigation remains active, with the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office working to identify the remains found near Chicago Road and Elmwood Drive. Police have not said when results from that examination might be available.
