Remains of two people have been found in two deserted suitcases near a road in southeastern Wisconsin, police said.
According to the Associated Press, highway workers came across the suitcases Thursday as they mowed the grass in Town of Geneva, about 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee, and moved them to the roadside, said town Police Chief Steven Hurley.
Another person, who opened the cases and discovered the bodies inside, alerted police officers. According to a news release from the Town of Geneva Police Department, a citizen saw the suitcases sitting by the road and called the police department about 3 p.m.
Declining to comment on the condition and details of the body remains and the suitcases, the chief said there appeared to be one body in each suitcase.
Although the suitcases were found along a rural road surrounded by corn fields, it doesn't appear the victims were killed at the location, Hurley said.
The investigation shows the crime was an isolated incident and residents in the community of about 4,000 are safe, he said, but declined to elaborate.
It's "very abnormal," Hurley said. "It's a very quiet town, a close-knit town. Everybody knows everybody else."
"Jim Daily, 70, owns a hay and horse farm about half a mile from where the suitcases were discovered. He came home Thursday afternoon to find the road barricaded by police," according to the AP. "All officers would tell him was that no one was in danger, he said. He later learned about the bodies from news outlets."
Since the grass was tall around the ditch, Daily wasn't certain how long the suitcases had been left there for. The nearby ditches are frequently used as dump sites for tires and other trash.
"I don't remember seeing anybody stopped or parked. We were as surprised as anybody else. It was a shock to all of us. You don't like finding corpses in your neighborhood," he said.
Autopsies of the dead remains were being conducted by the Waukesha County Medical Examiner's Office on Friday.
The town police were receiving assistance from the Walworth County Sheriff's Department and the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation.
Investigators are checking with other law enforcement agencies for reports of missing people.
"The citizens of the Town of Geneva can rest assured that this is an isolated incident, and the crime did not occur where the bodies were located," Geneva Police Chief Steven R. Hurley said.
