Woman’s body found off Linear Trail

CHESHIRE — Police say an unidentified white woman’s body was found in an area off the Farmington Canal Linear Trail on Tuesday and they are investigating the case as an “untimely death.”

The woman’s body was found down an embankment about 70 feet from the trail, according to Cheshire police. Investigators were unable to find any identification for the woman.

A section of the trail between Schoolhouse Road and an overpass that takes the trail over West Johnson Avenue was closed for more than seven hours as local police, with the help of the Connecticut State Police Major Crimes Division, conducted their investigation.

It reopened for public use at dusk.

Lt. Michael Durkee, a spokesman for the Cheshire Police Department, said police were called to the scene just after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday after receiving a complaint of suspicious items in the area. Police have not said what those items were.

The investigation into the woman’s death is continuing, according to Durkee.

Normally on a sunny day, dozens of walkers, runners and cyclists would be using that section of the trail, which is located a little more than a mile from Cheshire’s border with Southington. But yellow crime scene tape and a pair of police officers turned back trail users from getting anywhere near the scene.

The woman who was found dead Tuesday was the second case of an untimely death that Cheshire police have investigated in the last four months.

Megumi Yamamoto, a popular Cheshire High School teacher, was found dead in the woods near her home in October.

The investigation into Yamamoto’s death and the ruling by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined she died of acute drug intoxication, along with immersion in water.

Yamamoto’s death was ruled accidental.