The identity of a woman found dead in a house just northwest of Lawrence was being withheld late Friday, hours after the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office classified the death as a homicide.

Deputies found the body in the house at 1860 E. 1150 Road, just south of Lakeview Lake, while responding to a request to check the occupant’s welfare, Sheriff Rick Trapp said.

Yellow crime-scene tape was looped around the property’s trees Friday night, marking the investigation area. A child’s swing hanging from a low tree limb swayed in the brisk wind as deputies worked nearby. Officers moved in and out of the large, beige-colored house conducting their investigation, snapping flash pictures behind lacy, gauze curtains in a front room.

More than 10 squad cars were at the scene, as was a command center bus. Trapp said he expected the department would investigate through the night and into the weekend. He declined to comment further.

It is the first homicide investigation the office has led since the body of 38-year-old Dale Alan Miller of Topeka was found in April 2001 buried in a field near Lecompton.

The Sheriff’s Office and county coroner are being assisted by members of the Lawrence Police Department’s crime scene investigation team.

About 6 p.m. Friday, a green Saturn sport utility vehicle was towed from the property. It was the same vehicle neighbor Charles Taylor saw a woman going to and from the house in, he said.

Taylor has lived just south of the scene his entire life. When he drove past on his way home Friday evening, he stopped to ask officers what was going on. Investigators told him nothing.

“You know how it is,” Taylor said. “Mum’s the word.”

Douglas County property records show Eben Farley, who lives nearby, owns the home, which neighbors said had been rented in recent years. Farley was not available for comment.

The newest tenant, a single woman, moved there in early August, Taylor said.

Another neighbor, who asked to remain unidentified, said he saw a woman about 50 years old outside the home with a young boy, perhaps 7 years old. The neighbor had never met the woman or child, he said.

The cause and time of death are under investigation by the county coroner. The woman’s identity is being withheld pending notification of family, Sheriff’s Office representatives said.