From the air, officers spotted a car behind an abandoned apartment complex Friday night in northwest Atlanta.

But on the ground, officers made the gruesome discovery. A body was found inside the car’s trunk, Officer John Chafee told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The identity of the person in the car had not been released Saturday, but police confirmed to the AJC that the car was registered to a man reported missing in Griffin in May.

An Atlanta police air unit called dispatch around 6 p.m. Friday after spotting what they believed might be a stolen silver car in the 2200 block of Brooks Avenue, Chafee said. Officers arrived at the building and detected an odor coming from the car, he said.

Inside the car’s trunk, officers found the body, Chafee said.

“The vehicle appears to have been here for some time,” Chafee said. “Due to the body’s state of decomposition, investigators have not confirmed the race or sex of the deceased person.”

It was not immediately known how the person died.

An autopsy will be conducted by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office.