‘Mangled’ headless body lying on Oklahoma highway ‘looked like a deer,’ drivers say

Multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating a gruesome discovery along an Oklahoma highway.

Police from the tiny town of West Siloam Springs, which hugs the state’s border with Arkansas, requested the state agency’s help after a dead body was found Thursday morning, sprawled out on U.S. 412, according to a news release from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Investigators haven’t been able to identify the victim, because the head had been severed from the body found near the highway’s intersection with 690 Road.

Officials told KNWA that several drivers had run over the headless, “mangled” body before sunrise Thursday morning. West Siloam Springs Police Chief Larry Barnett told the station that the body belongs to a male, but its condition makes even narrowing down the victim’s age difficult.

Police will have to use fingerprints to determine an identity.

Bone fragments were also found scattered along the road after several scared drivers called police Thursday, KWSO reported.

“I was driving to work. I saw it. I tried to swerve,” Gearald Brown told the station. “Looked like a dear, you know. This guy didn’t deserve to die on this road like this. This is such a lonely place, you know.”

The body has been sent to the office of the state Medical Examiner, according to KJRH.

Authorities are investigating the man’s death as a homicide, KTUL reported. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Department and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol are also assisting in the search for clues.