Body of Decapitated Man to be Exhumed in Warren County

Authorities plan to exhume a man's body that had its head and hands removed when it was found nearly 30 years ago along a rural highway in Warren County.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that sheriff's detectives are hopeful that DNA testing can be used to identify the fair-skinned man and solve the killing. Sheriff's Lt. Matt Schmutz says "someone must be missing this person."

A squirrel hunter stumbled across the remains on the Tuesday after Memorial Day in 1987 in a sparsely populated area about nine miles north of Warrenton. Officials estimated the man had been there four to five days.

He appeared to have been killed elsewhere. Police believe the man's hands were removed in an attempt to hide his identity by eliminating fingerprints.