Woman’s remains found near Missouri road

NOEL, Mo. (AP) – Investigators believe a dead woman was stuffed into a suitcase and thrown from a moving vehicle, landing near a road in rural southwest Missouri.

McDonald County Sheriff Michael Hall says a bicyclist discovered the woman’s decomposing remains Monday along a state highway between the towns of Noel and Ginger Blue, about 80 miles  southwest of Springfield.

Hall said Tuesday that investigators believe the suitcase was apparently tossed from a vehicle and then rolled down a hill. He says it appears the woman’s body eventually fell out of the suitcase as it deteriorated.

Authorities have not identified the woman, or said how and when she died. Hall says she was in her 20s or 30s. An autopsy is being conducted to determine her identity and cause of death.