Body found off Derek Drive, no foul play suspected

A body was found Tuesday night in a wooded area off Derek Drive in Lake Charles but authorities said no foul play is suspected.

Commander James McGee with the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office said that the body was found in a vacant area on Dillard Loop and that the case was handed over to the Lake Charles Police Department.

The Sheriff's Office was investigating a crime in the area when the body was discovered.

Lake Charles Deputy Chief Mark Kraus said that while the case is being handled as a homicide, they feel confident the death was from natural causes. Kraus said they are treating it as a homicide because in policing, it is a better way to process the scene.

"In the wooded area we found a make-shift structure that this person was in," Kraus said. "We think it was probably a transient who created the shelter out there. For whatever reason, natural or otherwise, he died."

The investigation is ongoing, Kraus said.

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