UPDATE: Body identified as missing Lynchburg woman

Updated 2:35 p.m.

The remains found Sunday off a hiking trail at the foot of Candlers Mountain are those of Cassandra Morton, 23, of Lynchburg, authorities said.

Morton was last seen alive Oct. 10 around 10 p.m. in the Park Avenue area. A hiker found her remains near Camp Hydaway Road.

Campbell County sheriff Terry Gaddy told WSLS the cause of death has not been determined.

He said investigators are treating the case as a murder.

Authorities are planning a 4 p.m. news conference to release more information.

Updated 2:01 p.m.

A decomposed body discovered Sunday afternoon on Candlers Mountain has been identified, Capt. L.T. Guthrie of the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday afternoon.

Guthrie said investigators will release more information at a 4 p.m. press conference at the Lynchburg Police Department.

Earlier:

Campbell County Sheriff Terry Gaddy said he hopes medical records taken to the medical examiner’s office in Roanoke Tuesday morning could yield the identity of a body found on Candlers Mountain as early as Tuesday afternoon.

“We have several people who are missing from the Lynchburg area. Based on the description of clothing one of them was last seen wearing, I have a strong hunch,” Gaddy said of the body, which was found Sunday. “I’m leaning strongly toward one of those people.”

Gaddy refused to put a name with his suspicions, noting that things could change based on forensic findings. He added that investigators could not even positively identify the body as male or female at the scene based on the body’s decomposition. Investigators speculate the remains are those of a woman based on the body’s stature, he said.

Investigators are using dental and other medical records and the help of a forensic anthropologist traveling to Roanoke to help identify the remains, Gaddy said.

“I know it’s horrible for the families of these people that are missing,” he said.

Virginia Tech student and Roanoke resident Morgan Harrington’s disappearance from a Charlottesville concert in October has been widely reported.

Two others have recently gone missing from Lynchburg, he said.

Cassandra Ann Morton, 23, was last seen in Lynchburg on Oct. 10. A student at Lynchburg College from Pittsylvania County was also recently reported missing, the sheriff said.

Lynchburg Police Department spokesman Capt. Al Thomas did not provide information Monday night about anyone missing from Lynchburg College. Thomas said city detectives in touch with Campbell County investigators did not believe the body’s identity had been narrowed down to anyone missing locally.

However, Thomas said, city detectives and county investigators are scheduled to meet Tuesday morning.

Investigators on Monday searched the area where the body was found looking for more information. The remains, as well as soil and other items found near the body, were taken to the medical examiner’s office.

Gaddy said the body was found covered by debris, but that it was not buried in the ground. The head was found several feet away, he said, but it was impossible to say at the scene if that was the result of foul play.

The body was found around 3:30 p.m. Sunday by a person hiking near Camp Hydaway Road, according to the sheriff’s office. Maj. Steve Hutcherson said Sunday that “the body had been there for a while.”

Earlier:

A badly decomposed body was found off Camp Hydaway Road on Candlers Mountain on Sunday afternoon.

The body appears to be that of a woman, said Maj. Steve Hutcherson of the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office. The body has been transported to the medical examiner’s office in Roanoke for an autopsy.

“The body had been there for a while,” he said.

Hutcherson said foul play is suspected in the death, but investigators won’t know more or be able to identify the remains until an autopsy is performed.

The body was discovered around 3:30 p.m. by a hiker in the area of the old Camp Hydaway, Hutcherson said.

A deputy remained on scene overnight to make sure that no evidence is disturbed. Investigators, who were on scene about 8 hours Sunday, will return this morning to comb the area further for evidence.