Local & State Headlines

Unidentified body found

• A railroad engineer spotted the body in a wooded area near railroad tracks, police officials said.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — The body of an unidentified man was found near a city compound on the northeastern edge of the city Saturday, police officials said.

According to Albany Police officials, a railroad engineer for Norfolk Southern spotted the body about 50 feet from the railroad tracks near the 400 block of Hodges Avenue just west of the Jefferson Street Bridge around 11 a.m.

“The engineer spotted the body from his vantage point on the railroad car and called police,” APD spokeswoman Phyllis Banks said. “Right now this is a death investigation and we haven’t identified the man yet.”

The man was described as a black male with greying hair, although his exact age was unknown.

Banks said that the man is believed to have been homeless.

Cold temperatures that set in Friday night and early Saturday morning may have played a factor in the man’s death, although an exact cause of death hadn’t been determined.

The body was found in a city-owned area near the Albany Public Works Department and just adjacent to the Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s Laundry services building on Hodges Avenue.

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