Medical examiner working to identify body found buried in Vandalia home

The body found inside an abandoned Vandalia home is now with the medical examiner’s office.

The Audrain County Sheriff’s Department is working to identity the body to see if it could be that of a missing woman,Jennifer Middleton. Middleton was reported missing Wednesday. The Sheriff’s Department said Middleton hasn’t been seen in the Vandalia area since April 2015.

The Sheriff’s Department tells ABC 17 News its first priority is to positively identify the body.

ABC 17 News was able to speak with someone who claims to be the biological sister of Middleton who said, “It was not uncommon for us to not hear from her for long periods of time. She didn’t usually have a phone or Facebook.”

The sister said the family is just waiting for police to ID the body to have any sort of statement on Middleton.

A DNA sample testing is scheduled for family members this week.

Audrain County Sheriff Matt Oller said his deputies, as well as Vandalia officers, received information about a missing person report. On Friday, investigators received information on her possible location and that is where human remains were found.

Oller said the body was buried and had been there for a long time, so it could take some time to get an identification.

On Saturday, Oller confirmed John Herman Lue II was arrested Friday night and charged Saturday with abandonment of a corpse. Oller would only say Middleton and Lue were acquaintances.

One resident who lives near the 800 block of Limit Street said Lue and Middleton were living together at one point. The resident who wanted to remain anonymous said Lue would go in and out of the home at the 800 block, and about a year ago gutted out the floors and took out the windows to remodel the home.

The resident said Lue was a nice guy who “was raised to not do something like this.”