It’s a mystery.

Lawrence police are investigating an unattended death near the Kansas University campus after a resident discovered a body hanging inside a small outbuilding Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s obviously been there for a long time,” said Capt. Ray Urbanek.

Because the Oread Neighborhood is so close to campus and often bustling with traffic, two neighbors said the incident caught them off guard.

“It was completely unbelievable. I don’t know what to say,” said Melissa Fuller, a KU senior from Ottawa.

They had noticed a foul smell for a few days.

“The odor was very strong,” said Craig Mulanax, a KU student from Derby.

The body was discolored because of how long it had been there, Urbanek said. Officers could not immediately tell its race or sex, much less make an identification.

Police were called around 3:15 p.m. to an alley in the 1200 block of Louisiana Street after someone who lives in the house on the property made the discovery.

The residents of the home, who were all accounted for, had also detected a foul smell, Urbanek said. They were looking for the odor’s source when one of them discovered the body, he said.

Tuesday evening, a resident of the home declined comment other than to say the roommates did not use the shed.

The property’s owner, Dave Hamill, said in a telephone interview that the building was formerly a sauna but now tenants could use it typically for bicycle storage. He was unaware if the current tenants used the shed.

Hamill, who was out of the state Tuesday, said police notified him about the situation and that he also was puzzled.

“All the people who live there are accounted for and there, so it’s obviously somebody that we don’t know,” Hamill said.

He said he hoped officers were able to identify the person.

“It’s just a building that somebody was able to get into, and they did whatever they did,” Hamill said.

Detectives had removed the body and turned the building back over to management by 7:30 p.m. Urbanek said an autopsy would likely be done today to help investigators determine more.

“It looks pretty much just like a suicide to me,” he said.

Police did ask for help identifying the person, who was found wearing a baseball cap that said 54th Street Grill and Bar and a yellow North Face brand backpack.