Body of victim found at trash-hauling business
Columbus homicide detectives are investigating after the body of a person who appeared to be fatally shot was found Wednesday morning at a commercial property on the Near East Side.
Sgt. David Shimberg said an employee of a trash-hauling company that occupies the property on the 300 block of Centab Drive near Harvard Avenue found the body around 7:45 a.m. near a large commercial dumpster on the partially wooded property on the 300 block of Centab Drive near Harvard Avenue, north of Greenway Avenue.
The body appears to be that of an adult who was shot, Shimberg said. He could not immediately say whether it was a male or female as the Franklin County Coroner's office had not arrived at the scene yet.
The death is the second homicide in Columbus in 2022.
The names of two commercial trashhauling companies were on signs on a fenced gate topped with barbed wire at the entrance to the property — Professional Hauling and H R Hauling.
A phone number for Professional Hauling was reported as disconnected. A phone number could not be found for H R Hauling. Neither firm is listed as a property owner in Franklin County Auditor's office records.
The property is located a short distance south of where Bexley City
Schools owns property it uses to store school buses.
Detectives remained on the scene late Wednesday morning. The fence at the property where the body was found does not entirely surround the property, which backs up to a wooded area and a railroad line.
Shimberg said it is believed the entrance to the property is typically gated and locked, but the fence does not surround the entire property The property abuts a railroad line at the rear, according to Google satellite images and Franklin County Auditor's office mapping. .
Additional details were not immediately available and the investigation was continuing.
Anyone with information about this or any other homicide in Columbus is asked to call city homicide detectives at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner