Body Found In Shallow Grave At Suncadia Resort

Detectives are processing the scene where a backhoe operator unearthed a body buried in a shallow grave near a golf course at Suncadia Resort Monday, the Kittitas County Sheriff's Office said.

The remains are of a woman who was buried 18 to 24 inches below the surface, but there was no immediate information about how old she was or how long the body had been there, the Sheriff's Office said.

The backhoe operator was cutting a trench for a watering system for one of the golf courses at about 8:30 a.m. when he noticed a piece of clothing, deputies said.

WATCH IT: Body's Mysterious Appearance Under Investigation

Sheriff's detectives began excavation of the body Monday afternoon. Work was suspended Monday night and resumed Tuesday morning.

Two tents were set up. One is over the excavation site. The other is for processing.

Sheriff's investigators are wielding shovels and sifting through dirt, alongside two archaeologists from Central Washington University, trying to recover and preserve remains, bits of clothing and perhaps key evidence.

Investigators said they are working slowly and being very precise as they continue recovering the entire skeleton.

Removing the female’s remains may take another two days, and then the focus will turn to trying to learn who she is. Police said Kittitas County doesn’t have any unsolved cases involving missing women, so deputies think she may have come from somewhere else.

“We have a team of investigators who are working locally and with neighboring counties for missing adult females. It’s a little too early to tell which ones are in the ballpark because we are still struggling with our time frame,” said Kittitas County Undersheriff Clayton Myers.

One clue about the time frame comes from the fact that Suncadia is less than a decade old. The land was cleared in 2002. Police said the body was probably buried here after that.