Woman's Body Found In Abandoned Joliet Apartment Building

JOLIET, IL — A dead body was found Thursday inside an abandoned apartment building at 22 North Cagwin Avenue, near the intersection of West Jefferson Street. The body was a badly decomposed woman and had been there less than three weeks.

Demolition workers had previously been at the property three weeks ago to remove asbestos and the body was not there at that time.

On Friday, the Joliet Police issued a press release announcing the dead body was not 33-year-old Joliet resident Jasmine Morrow, who has been missing since July 2. Joliet Police revealed they were called to the property on Cagwin Avenue around 11 a.m. Thursday "in reference to a foul odor coming from an upstairs room of an abandoned residence. Demolition crews were about begin work on the residence and noticed a foul odor and called police."

Police said they found "a deceased female who appeared to have been there for some time. The investigation is still in its early stages. Due to her condition, it is too soon to determine cause of death at this time. The deceased female has been tentatively identified and her identity will be released from the Will County Coroner’s Office pending proper notification."

The site of this week's grisly discovery on Joliet's near west side is that of at a multi-story apartment that was the site of a structure fire in April.

Joliet Patch reported at the time that three Joliet fire stations battled a three-story apartment building fire that began around 11:50 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, displacing a total of eight residents. All the tenants made it out safely and nobody was injured as a result of the fire.