Hunters find body behind Canton Target

CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — Canton police are investigating a suspicious death after a body was found in a wooded area behind a Super Target shopping center.

Officers were dispatched to the Canton Marketplace shopping center on Cumming Highway around 9:30 a.m. Sunday. They said cross bow hunters looking for deer found a body in woods about 200 feet from the center.

There was no identification on the body, described as that of a Hispanic male between the ages of 20 and 30, Canton police told Channel 2's Amanda Cook. The body was in an area between Ga. 140 and Ga. 20, said Cherokee County coroner Earl Darby.

He said the body is being sent to the state crime lab for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death.

“At this time, all we can tell you is its ruled suspicious by our detectives," Pacer Cordry of the Canton Police Department said.

Detectives were on the scene Sunday investigating the events that led to his death. Detectives did not say how long the body had been in the area.

Cook saw about a half dozen officers emerge from the woods on an ATV. Some were carrying metal detectors and she said police had a trailer full of special equipment to assist with the investigation.

Canton police ask that anyone with information on the man’s identity to call 911.

WSBTV