Body found in pile of trash at Kansas City recycling center

Kansas City police are investigating the discovery of a man’s body in a trash pile inside a recycling warehouse early Tuesday.

Workers at the 24-hour facility near Raytown Road and Winchester Avenue discovered the body about 4:30 a.m. as they sorted through recently dumped trash for recyclables. The workers saw the body in a front loader bucket and called police.

The warehouse owned by Material Transfer and Recovery accepts trash drop-offs from residents and businesses, including commercial trash trucks. Employees sort through an average of 700 tons of trash daily, an employee said. Trash that can’t be reused is loaded into semi-tractor trailers to be taken to a dump. Police said the load that contained the man’s body apparently came from a commercial truck.

Investigators were trying to trace where the load was picked up. The grisly discovery doesn’t necessarily indicate the man was a victim of homicide, police said. The death could be ruled accidental or natural if the body belonged to a homeless man who fell asleep in a trash bin.

Investigators will know more once they identify the victim. Police will rely on the Jackson County medical examiner to determine the cause of death.

This story was originally published March 11, 2014 at 6:59 AM.