Decomposing body found near college

A decomposing body of a man was discovered this morning behind bushes at an abandoned house at Ogden Street and East Dewey Place, a block east of Hogwild Records, Tapes and CD’s.

San Antonio Police Department reported that a student called police noticing a foul odor and spotting the body.

Architecture sophomore Kentavian Brown said he was on his way to an 8 a.m. class when he saw the body mostly obscured by tall bushes between the house and the sidewalk along Dewey, but he did not report it even though he said he smelled a strong, foul odor.

“I saw it this morning, but I didn’t know it was a dead body. I just thought it was somebody drunk,” he said.

Brown said about 10 a.m., when he returned on his walk home to a nearby apartment after class, the body was still there and a fire truck had arrived at the scene.

By 12:15 p.m., police cars blocked vehicles from entering East Dewey Place from Main to Ogden Street.

An officer directed reporters to the San Antonio Police Department’s public information’s office, saying he could be suspended for releasing information.

The man’s identity has not been released.

About 15 onlookers gathered as police waited for the medical examiner to arrive.

The abandoned house is next door to a district-owned residential property at 811 Ogden and across Dewey from the college’s parking Lot 32 at Dewey and Ogden.

Liberal arts freshman Margaret Grosse appeared at the scene after she saw the broadcast on television station KSAT because she thought she might know the victim.

Three homeless men, whom she had let stay in her apartment nearby, have been missing for about three days, she said.

“I haven’t seen Johnny since Sunday afternoon,” Grosse said as she started to tear up. “I haven’t seen Chilly Willy for three or four days.”

She said when she met “Johnny,” he was sleeping under the house at 823 Ogden where the body was found.

Local resident Marivel Del Comaral said she smelled a foul odor around 9 a.m. while walking her dog, but she did not see a body.

Del Comaral and another resident Andrew Uresti said there is a large population of homeless people around the neighborhood.

Photojournalism freshman Christopher Johnson said he noticed a body in the morning but thought it was a mannequin and assumed the odor was from a dead animal.

Kinesiology Instructor Chris Dillon was returning with a group of faculty and staff from a summer Wellness trek to the River Walk at about 8:45 a.m. when they noticed the odor.

They thought it was trash and no one noticed a body, Dillon said.

The carcass of a dead cat was lying in the grass on the north side of Dewey, contributing to the smell of decomposition.

Brown wondered about a regular in the neighborhood. “I used to always see a guy with his dog, sitting outside the porch of the white house. I hope it’s not him.”