BATON ROUGE - A dilapidated vacant house in the Mid-City section of Baton Rouge has been holding a secret, possibly for many years. A body so badly decomposed that only a skeleton was found.

"When I realized it was a body. I was stunned. I got out of there." Mid-City Resident Robert Perkins said.

75-year old Perkins lives right next door and discovered the remains on Sunday, on the floor of a bedroom inside the vacant house on Roselawn Avenue, near Florida Blvd.

"My eyes went straight to the floor on that body. I thought it was a Chucky Doll," Perkins said.

He passed by the skeleton three times when he went through the vacant house to get building materials stored in the backyard.

"I just saw the skull part, and the feet, didn't look it had any shoes on," Perkins said.

The body is so badly decomposed that police can't say if it was a man or woman nor a possible cause of death. LSU's forensic lab is helping to identify the remains.