Human Skull Found 100 Feet from ‘Severely Decomposing’ Headless Body in Wooded Area Behind Nashville McDonald’s

A human skull has been discovered near the site where a headless body was recently found in Nashville.

Police said that around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 22, a woman reported finding a “severely decomposed grouping of skeletal remains” in a wooded area behind a McDonald’s on Dickerson Pike, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department’s press conference covered by Fox Nashville.

Detectives with the Homicide Unit later located a human skull in “a deep state of decomposition” roughly 100 feet from the initial discovery, closer to the McDonald’s parking lot, police spokesperson Brooke Reese said during the briefing.

“It is unclear at this point who this person is, how this person got there, so those circumstances are under investigation at this time,” Reese explained. “Homicide Unit detectives as well as our CSI team are out here trying to work through those details.”

Authorities are now working to determine the victim’s identity and how long the remains had been at the site. Reese noted that investigators have not yet confirmed whether the skull and body belong to the same individual.

Reese added that “it doesn’t appear that anyone is living in the woods” where the remains were located. Due to the advanced decomposition, investigators also cannot yet determine how the victim ended up there.

“Given the heat, the woods and the nature of how this person was found, it’s extremely difficult for officers to see and for our CSI team to photograph and capture,” Reese said.

No weapons were found at the scene, according to police.

“It’s pretty gory. That’s crazy. I don’t even know what to say,” local worker Tom Keesee told WSMV after the discovery. “We live in a big city. I don’t want to say killings are normal, but a headless body, that’s the next level.”

The Metro Nashville Police Department has not yet responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment as of Sunday, Aug. 24.