Kansas City, Mo. ? Police were investigating the deaths of three people whose bodies were found by weekend crews cleaning up an illegal dump area.

Police said Sunday no positive identification has been made on any of the bodies because they were in advanced stages of decomposition. But police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sanders said the bodies appeared to be those of one woman and two men.

He did not know when police would be able to make a positive identification.

The first body was found about 9:30 a.m. Saturday by a Water Services Department worker who was helping volunteers during an annual cleanup of the Blue River area, Sanders said.

The worker was using a backhoe to remove trash and junk from a wooded area behind an industrial site when he found what appeared to be a human body under a pile of garbage.

The man called 911, and detectives were sent to search the area for evidence. They soon found a second body nearby, and the third body was found about three hours later. All three were within a few feet of each other in a ravine area.

The annual cleanup, sponsored by the Friends of the Lakeside Nature Center, faced a similar situation in 2006, when a body was discovered during a cleanup of a different area.