Mushroom Hunter Stumbles Upon Boy's Corpse on Easter Weekend: Police

A young boy's dead body was found abandoned in the woods on Saturday by a local resident practicing a rare hobby: mushroom hunting.

The discovery of the body was confirmed by Indiana State Police on Sunday, confirming that it was found in Washington County, Indiana, local NBC affiliate WLKY News reported. The identity of the mushroom hunter was not publicly disclosed, though it was reported that they made the discovery at around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The mushroom hunter reportedly found the body in a densely wooded region in the eastern part of Washington County, which was not far from a road. They immediately called 911 about their grim discovery.

Also known as foraging, mushroom hunting is the practice of scouring wilderness regions for edible, and in most cases rare varieties of wild mushrooms. The practice can be found in several countries across multiple continents, but is only done in temperate regions of the U.S. and Canada. Foragers are often known to employ animals to find mushrooms, including dogs and pigs, though it is not known if the one in Washington County did so when they found the body.

Authorities have so far determined that the boy was between the ages of 5 and 8 when he died, which they also believe to have been sometime in the last week. He was also described as being Black with a thin build and short haircut, and being around four feet in height. The exact time and cause of death are still unknown, pending the results of an upcoming autopsy.

Indiana State Police are now calling on residents to help identify the boy, as well as to provide any other information potentially relevant to the case. Any individual with such information is asked to call Detective Matt Busick with the Indiana State Police at 1-812-248-4374 or 1-800-872-6743.

"There's somebody at an Easter table this weekend that maybe has somebody that's not there and were expecting to come," Indiana State Police Sergeant Cary Huls said on Sunday, according to The Clay Center Dispatch. "There's family members, friends, somebody from school perhaps, that knows maybe there was issues, that thinks this could possibly be that child."

Newsweek reached out to the Indiana State Police for comment.

The discovery of dead bodies by mushroom hunters is not entirely unheard of. Earlier in April, another forager found the body of 40-year-old Crystal Vanlue while hunting in the wooded area of Ray Clinton Park in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, according to KAIT 8 News.