Baltimore County police searched a wooded area in Arbutus yesterday for clues to the identity of a decomposed body found there over the weekend.

A father and two sons hiking about 200 yards into the woods from the 1600 block of Sulphur Spring Road found the body Saturday evening. Police said the body was so badly decomposed that neither the race nor gender could be determined without an autopsy.

Bill Toohey, a Baltimore County police spokesman, said investigators are hoping to find anything that might help them identify the body, which was mostly bones.

"Typically we go through the area looking for pieces of clothing or any personal belongings that might help tell us who this person is," he said. Investigators also hope to find something that might tip them off to the time of death.

Police said detectives found no clothes or belongings at the scene Saturday. The body was taken to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy.

Investigators will go through missing persons files in the area and can compare dental records from the files to dental impressions taken from the body, Tooheysaid.

If there are no dental records or other means of identification, police can circulate an artist's sketch of what the person might have looked like. But that doesn't always produce results.

"Last year, we put out an artist's sketch of a woman who was found five years ago," Toohey said, "and we still haven't identified her."

Pub Date: 8/31/98