Authorities in New England have discovered a body behind a Massachusetts school, and suspect foul play, adding to the tally of deaths in the region since February.
The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office announced that Stephan Myers, aged 39, was found deceased at a construction site behind Bristol Plymouth High School in Taunton, Massachusetts, early Wednesday morning, as reported by Boston 25. Officials confirmed that Myers had been shot once.
Authorities said there isn’t a connection between Myers and the school.
Bristol Plymouth High School in Taunton informed WPRI that there was no danger to students or staff, and no lockdown was necessary.
Taunton, Massachusetts authorities are suspecting foul play in the death of Stephan Myers. (WPRI )
When speaking to reporters, Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni downplayed concerns that there might be a serial killer.
“While online conversations around these incidents continue to grow, we urge the public to be mindful of the role that social media can play in spreading fear or misinformation,” Gulluni said. “Unverified claims can compromise active investigations and contribute to a sense of chaos that does not reflect the full picture.”
Former Washington, D.C., homicide detective Ted Williams told Fox News Digital he thinks detectives aren’t ruling anything out.
“The investigators who are conducting these investigations are not ruling out anything whatsoever at this stage of the investigation,” Williams said. “They are primarily at the preliminary stages of gathering evidence at each one of these death scenes to try to establish a nexus between those scenes and a single individual or individuals.”
Taunton is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the seat of Bristol County. (Getty Images)
“I don’t think at this stage they’re waving off a serial killer,” Williams said.
Williams added that he believes authorities are trying to “connect the dots, if the dots connect” between locations where bodies were found.
“Some of these deaths may very well be of not a crime situation. They’re trying to make a connection. And the information that they’re providing the public is information that they believe the public more or less may need,” Williams said.
However, Fox News contributor and forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden told Fox News Digital he doesn’t see a pattern.
A map showing the locations of where bodies in the New England area have been found. (Fox News)
“There really is no quite distinct, clear pattern of all of this,” Baden said.
Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin and Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
