California police and the Missouri Highway Patrol are investigating a death that was discovered Wednesday morning on East Street.
The city police department and the Moniteau County Sheriff's Department responded to the scene early Wednesday morning and taped off the area as part of the investigation, said Police Chief Daniel Hurt. The Missouri State Highway's Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control was called to assist and investigate the death.
"In any death scene, you (make sure to) always treat it as a crime even if it's not - just until it's determined," Hurt said. "At this point, all of (what we are doing) is just investigative and since we turned the investigation over to the DDCC, we are waiting on them to give us information so we can let people know what's going on."
Hurt and CPD Capt. Ralph Parris said no evidence of gun violence was found at the scene.
"Aside from elderly people who pass away in their sleep, anything that looks remotely different from something like that, we always try to treat those types of deaths as a potential crime scene," said CPD Capt. Ralph Parris. "That's what we did in this situation, so it's nothing out of the ordinary.
"There were no shots fired or anything like that. We have had some scares going on in the community (due to rumors) but there is no reason to fear or panic - the community is safe," he said.
No further details were being released, pending notification of relatives of the deceased.