LUMBERTON - Authorities are trying to identify a body that was found in an overgrown field in Allenton on Tuesday.

Sheriff's Maj. Randal Patterson said the dead person appears to have suffered a head injury. He said investigators have classified it as a “suspicious death.”

“It was laying out in the woods, it appeared that it had been there a couple of weeks and had already started to decay,” Patterson said.

Patterson said a man found the body at the edge of some woods, behind a house on Pittman Road. The dead man did have a wallet that included a photo identification , but his body was so badly decomposed a positive ID could not be made. Patterson said there was money in the wallet, so robbery doesn't appear to be a motive if there was a murder committed.

“We've got an idea who it is but we've got to get some fingerprints,” Patterson said.

The body appears to be that of a Hispanic or American Indian male who was in his mid-20s. The man was about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed about 185 pounds. Patterson said he was wearing black jeans, a black leather jacket, a white Harley Davidson T-shirt and white Adidas tennis shoes.

The body was taken to the state Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill, where an autopsy will be performed.

Anyone with information can call the Robeson County Sheriff's Office at 671-3100.