CINCINNATI -- The coroner is asking for help identifying a middle-aged woman whose body was found outside an Avondale apartment complex in May.
Hamilton County Coroner Investigator Daryl Zornes said children who were playing outside apartments at 421 Glenwood Avenue found the woman partially buried in a mulch bed.
Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco said Forensic Anthropologist Beth Murray concluded she was a white, middle-aged woman, and a forensic artist used her skull to create a sketch of what she might look like.
She is believed to be 5’5’’ to 5’8’’. She had shoulder length, light brown hair with some graying.
Whoever buried the woman had wrapped her in cloth and placed a rose on her chest, according to Zornes.
Sammarco said foul play is not suspected.
“Upon autopsy, the forensic pathologist did not feel like there was any foul play,” Sammarco said. “So we don’t anticipate that this is a homicide. Somebody took the time and trouble to try and bury her … she was found with a flower on her chest, and there weren’t any outward signs of homicide. We just need some help trying to find out who she is to try to give her family some closure."
Watch the coroner's news conference in the player below:
The woman was The woman was wearing gray, silky pajama bottoms and a gray tank top. The name “Schrader” was written in permanent marker on the tag inside the pajama bottoms. A white metal hair stylist-type hair clip was in her hair.
She was wearing silver hoop earrings and three black rope bracelets.
Sammarco said she had likely been dead for a couple weeks, but it was difficult for investigators to determine when she died because her body was partially decomposed. Officials do not know how the woman died.
"At this point, we're thinking natural causes," Sammarco said. "We couldn't rule out an overdose really, but it's hard to tell."
If you have any information regarding her identity, you are asked to call Cincinnati Police Homicide at 513-352-3542 or Zornes at 513-946-8700
