Kottayam: The police have identified the person whose skeleton was found in a property owned by the Sahitya Pravarthaka Cooperative Society at Mariyappally, close to the MC Road, outside Kottayam town.

The deceased has been identified as Jishnu Haridas (23), a native of Kudavathoor, Vaikom.

Haridas, who was an employee of a bar hotel in Kumarakom, had gone missing on June 3.

The police put together the identity while conducting investigations into the mobile phone and footwear that were found near the body.

The skeleton was found about 9 am on Friday in the property which housed the India Press of the Sahitya Pravarthaka Cooperative Society, a body of authors in Kerala. .

Workers who were clearing the overgrowth in a part of the property by digging mud found the skeleton under a tree near the old canteen building of the press. They then informed the police about it.

The flesh of the body was completely decomposed, the police said.

The police also found a cloth hanging from the tree, which they suspect to be the remains of the shirt the deceased was wearing. The skeleton was found below the cloth.

The skeleton also had the remains of the jeans Haridas was wearing, the police said.

The police had found the footwear and the mobile phone from near the skeleton.

The spot where the body was found was heavily weeded and locals avoided the place, the police said. Also, the place was used to dump poultry waste, whose smell subdued the odour of the decomposing body, they said.

The forensic team also collected evidence from the spot.