Kansas City, Mo. ? Kansas City police are investigating three bodies found Saturday in an illegal dumping area near a river where city employees and volunteers were doing cleanup work.

Police say the bodies appear to be those of adults and are being looked at as homicides.

Detectives were called to an area near the Blue River about 9:50 a.m. Saturday after a city water department worker found the first body. The man was using a backhoe to remove trash and debris near the river bed when he made the discovery.

The worker was helping with an annual cleanup program.

The detectives who went to the scene canvassed the area and found a second body under some nearby ground cover.

The third body was found about 12:45 p.m.

Investigators said they were not sure of the race or gender of the victims.

Sgt. Tony Sanders, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department, said he would release additional information when it became available. He did not immediately return telephone calls to The Associated Press for comment Saturday.

Sanders told The Kansas City Star that the worker who found the first body and called 911 was “pretty upset.”

According to The Star, about 50 volunteers were picking up trash in the area.

The scene was similar to one in 2006 when a body was found in the city during a cleanup effort.