JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – One day after human remains were found in a wooded area near a city park, Jacksonville police identified the victim as 18-year-old Deshawn Minor.
Minor's remains were found Sunday afternoon in woods of Beachwood Park on Marina Drive, which backs up to Florida State College at Jacksonville's South Campus. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said a man who was in the area feeding cats in the park noticed a foul odor coming through the bushes. That's when he saw what appeared to be a human body.
Police said the remains were decomposing. Homicide detectives have classified Minor's death as a murder.
Minor lived on University Boulevard, but he was arrested in St. Johns and Nassau counties earlier this year in connection with burglaries to vehicles. Charges for a June arrest in Nassau County were dropped, but he was awaiting trial after an arrest for the same thing a month earlier in St. Johns County.
His mother filed a missing persons report with the sheriff's office on Nov. 15.
FSCJ sent out an alert Monday morning about police activity in its west parking lot near Perimeter Road, but said it was not associated with FSCJ and there was no danger to the campus community. The college said Minor was not a student.
Police haven't said how Minor ended up in the neighborhood next to the college, but it's shaken up people in the area.