SOUTH FORSYTH — The name of the woman whose body was found Saturday near McFarland Parkway/Exit 12 off Ga. 400 will be released later this week, authorities said.
According to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, her identity has been determined and her family notified. However, authorities were awaiting the results of an autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, before announcing the name.
To date, the woman has been described only as in her 20s and a Georgia resident who didn’t live in Forsyth County.
Foul play is not suspected, although an exact motive or cause of death was not immediately known.
Hunters made the discovery about noon Saturday in the woods between the BP and RaceTrac gas stations, according to Doug Rainwater, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
Investigators have determined the body had been there about two months, he said. The woman was never reported missing because she often “took off” without telling her family.
The property owner lets hunters use the land where the body was found, Rainwater said. Although the area is heavily commercialized and lined with well-traveled roads, the hunters were “deep in the woods” around Ridgeland Parkway.
The county coroner was on scene Saturday to gather details before the GBI’s crime scene unit began its investigation.
The body was the second found over a five-week span in Forsyth County.
On Nov. 24, authorities recovered the body of a 46-year-old homeless man on the Lake Lanier shoreline at Mary Alice Park.
Authorities said the man, who was been camping in woods near the park, had drowned in the lake at least a week earlier. The incident was ruled accidental with no foul play.
The remains of a third person with Forsyth County ties were discovered Nov. 30 in a wooded area of southern Dawson County.
Hunters found a human skull and articles of clothing near Hanging Dog Road, off Dawson Forest Road and not far from the Forsyth line.
While an official identification hasn’t been made public, authorities have said the bones could be those of a 42-year-old Forsyth man who disappeared in January and whose truck was found in that general area in February. Foul play is not suspected.