'Partially decomposed' body identified after discovery by man mowing lawn
A man mowing his lawn made the grisly discovery of a partially decomposed body that authorities have now identified as a man last seen being released from incarceration several weeks before, police said.
The body of 43-year-old Charles Warner Ingram was found last Friday at a farm property in Neshoba County, Mississippi, at approximately 1:45 p.m. The man mowing his lawn, who was not publicly identified, “discovered a partially decomposed body” not far from a road, according to the Neshoba County Sheriff’s Office.
Neshoba County Sheriff’s deputies, the Neshoba County medical examiner and Mississippi Bureau of Investigations officers canvassed the area for clues or evidence that would help identify the body after it was found before, on Wednesday, authorities announced that they had identified the man and that he had last been seen on August 16 at the Neshoba County Detention Facility.
“He had recently been released by the judge on two Failure to Appear warrants though Neshoba County Justice Court, officials said on Wednesday. “His incarceration spanned from July 13, 2025, to August 14, 2025.”
Police said that Ingram was released from the detention center around 2 p.m. on August 14 and that two days later, on August 16, he was caught on camera walking to the jail and drinking water from the fountain before leaving on foot, traveling toward Highway 15.
The property where the body was discovered 15 days later is located approximately a half-mile west of Highway 15 in the Fork Community in Mississippi, not far from where Ingram was last scene on camera.
The Mississippi Forensics Laboratory was able to identify Ingram -- who was from nearby Philadelphia, Mississippi -- through his fingerprints, police said.
Investigators are currently looking into Ingram’s potential cause of death and how he ended up on the property where he was found but initial reports on Ingram’s condition from police after his body was found suggested he “had been on the property for an extended period of time, possibly up [to] 4 to 6 weeks.”
The investigation is currently ongoing.
