A mysterious mummified body has been discovered in the walls of a convention centre.
Construction workers discovered the body on Wednesday (Mar 9) during a renovation of Henry J Kaiser Convention Center in the downtown region of the San Francisco Bay city of Oakland, California.
The bizarre discovery in the building, which is over a century old, has triggered a search by authorities for answers as to who the person is and how they came to be there.
Authorities say the corpse appears to be that of a man and it is estimated he had been there for between three and five years – but almost nothing more is known about the man or how he came to be preserved within the wall of the building.
An investigation into the identification of the victim is ongoing.
The coroner will use dental records and possibly preserved fingerprints to discover the identity of the man.
Lieutenant Frederick Shavies of the Oakland police said an autopsy would hopefully help to reveal the cause of death, but officials don't currently believe the man was a murder victim.
Shavies said: "No obvious or unnatural trauma was found indicating foul play, nor were the victims hands, feet, or other body parts bound.
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"Based on the position the victim’s body was found in, this tragic death is most likely an accidental death caused by positional asphyxiation due to compression from the small space," he added.
The body was discovered behind drywall in a cavity with a small 15-inch opening, say Oakland Police Department.
Shavies said: "Markings and biological evidence at the top of the opening indicate the victim may have been deceased near the top and over time his body slowly decayed and slipped toward the bottom of the cavity space."
The Henry J Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland, near San Francisco, is a historical landmark that opened in 1914.
The auditorium where the body was found was once a renowned performance venue has seen performers and speakers such as Martin Luther King Jr, Elvis Presley and the Grateful Dead grace the stage.
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It’s sat empty in recent years, after city leaders determined it was too expensive to maintain.
The council in Oakland approved a plan to renovate the building in 2015 and reopen it as a performing arts space and commercial venue 2015. , the company handling the renovation, declined to comment on the discovery.
Officials who said initially that this was a homicide investigation reported on Thursday that it might instead have been an unfortunate mishap.
Orton Development Inc, the company performing the construction effort, has been contacted for comment.
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