Det. Todd Chenez comes out of the fields behind WideWaters Drive-In, where police are investigating the scene of a body found earlier today. (STAFF PHOTOS)

BY +Scott Leffler 
scott.leffler@eastniagarapost.com

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County Coroner Ken Lederhouse said the male body has likely been in the wooded area for "a while."

Lockport Police Department detectives are on scene at a field behind WideWaters Drive-In Restaurant where a pair of city workers found a dead body earlier this afternoon.

According to LPD Det. Capt. Brian Wentland, the body has not been identified. Police also don't know how long the body has been in the wooded area, approximately 100 yards off the road.

County Coroner Ken Lederhouse, also on scene, said it seems like the male corpse has "been there a while." It is in such a state of decay that he couldn't even give an approximate age for the body.

Wentland said they're not rushing to judgment as far as how long the body has been there, noting that the weather was quite warm last week and that weather could have resulted in rapid decay. In short, it could have been there for several days, weeks or months, he said.

Wentland said the department is investigating it as though it were a homicide, although that's not a foregone conclusion.

"Everything is always treated as a homicide first until it can be proven otherwise," Wentland said.

The body was found by a pair of water department workers around 1:54 p.m., according to officials.

UPDATE: LPD believes it knows identity of body found

Several police cars are on scene near WideWaters as detectives investigate the scene about 100 yards into the field behind the restaurant.

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