Madison County woman’s body found along road

Authorities want the public’s help to determine what happened to a Madison County woman who was found dead Thursday.

Just after 7:30 a.m., a passerby called the Madison County Sheriff’s Office to report a body beside the road on Route 323 in Range Township.

The area is in the southern, rural part of the county, about eight miles west of the village of Mt. Sterling and is rarely used in the early morning.

Deputies and medics from the Sterling Joint Ambulance District arrived to find the victim, Kelsey Jean Maynard, 26, fully clothed in a winter coat and boots, with no signs of trauma or struggle.

“Even her body position was not indicative of someone who was dragged or thrown there,” Sheriff Jim Sabin said. “There’s no indication of any kind of foul play.”

Maynard lived with her parents near where she was discovered and was last seen about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the sheriff’s office.

Sabin said investigators think she was there “a matter of hours.”

Her father, Harlan Maynard, 67, said his daughter, who did not drive or have a job, cared for her 6-year-old son at the family home.

“She was a normal kid, a good mother,” he said.

A preliminary autopsy by the Montgomery County coroner’s office did not reveal any evidence of foul play, struggle or a cause. The coroner is awaiting additional testing, including toxicology results, which could take as many as two months. Agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation processed the scene.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 740-852-1332.