Authorities in New England found a body behind a school in Massachusetts and are suspecting foul play, adding to the number of people found dead in the region since February.
The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said Stephan Myers, 39, was found behind Bristol Plymouth High School in Taunton, Massachusetts at a construction site early Wednesday morning, according to Boston 25. Officials said Meyers was shot one time and was found deceased.
Authorities said there isn’t a connection between Myers and the school.
In a statement, the Bristol Plymouth High School in Taunton told WPRI there was no threat to students or staff and the building wasn’t placed on lockdown.
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Authorities in Taunton, Massachusetts found a body behind a high school. (WPRI)
Myers is the 12th body to have been found since February in the New England area, fueling fears online that there could be a serial killer in the area.
On March 25, a separate body was found in Taunton. The individual was identified as Samuel Stovall, 51, and authorities said his death hasn’t been deemed suspicious.
New England law enforcement officials have so far denied these deaths are connected with a serial killer.
In early March, detectives found the body of Paige Fannon, 35, in the Norwalk River in Norwalk, Connecticut.
The body of Meggan Meridith, 45, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was found on March 22.
On March 6, a human skull was found in a wooded area off of Route 3 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Authorities have not released any further details.
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Taunton, Massachusetts authorities are suspecting foul play in the death of Stephan Myers. (WPRI )
When speaking to reporters, Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni downplayed concerns that there might be a serial killer.
“While online conversations around these incidents continue to grow, we urge the public to be mindful of the role that social media can play in spreading fear or misinformation,” Gulluni said. “Unverified claims can compromise active investigations and contribute to a sense of chaos that does not reflect the full picture.”
Former Washington, D.C., homicide detective Ted Williams told Fox News Digital he thinks detectives aren’t ruling anything out.
“The investigators who are conducting these investigations are not ruling out anything whatsoever at this stage of the investigation,” Williams said. “They are primarily at the preliminary stages of gathering evidence at each one of these death scenes to try to establish a nexus between those scenes and a single individual or individuals.”
Taunton is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the seat of Bristol County. (Getty Images)
“I don’t think at this stage they’re waving off a serial killer,” Williams said.
Williams added that he believes authorities are trying to “connect the dots, if the dots connect” between locations where bodies were found.
“Some of these deaths may very well be of not a crime situation. They’re trying to make a connection. And the information that they’re providing the public is information that they believe the public more or less may need,” Williams said.
However, Fox News contributor and forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden told Fox News Digital he doesn’t see a pattern.
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A map showing the locations of where bodies in the New England area have been found. (Fox News)
“There really is no quite distinct, clear pattern of all of this,” Baden said.
Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin and Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
