Human remains were found Thursday at a work site in Everett, Massachusetts.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said that a National Grid worker discovered a skull around 11 a.m.
Following a search of the area, investigators then located the rest of the body, which they determined was a woman. Her remains had been exposed to the elements for a year or longer.
It's unclear how the woman died or if she suffered any trauma.
Authorities said the area where the body was found is used by National Grid as a staging area for fill. Ryan said it looked like the body was left there and not brought in accidentally with a load of soil.
"There's some pieces. We don't know actually that they're connected," Ryan said. "As you can imagine, we are going through a pile of dirt. So it's difficult to determine what's valuable. We're trying to collect as much as we can now and preserve that and we'll continue to do that."
