Woman identified after body found dismembered in Orange County wooded area

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A woman whose dismembered body was found in a wooded area in Orange County was identified Thursday, officials said.

Authorities said a resident found Ethel Shannon McCarson's mutilated body in a wooded area off Old Winter Garden Road near John Young Parkway Wednesday, deputies said.

Officials said McCarson, 42, is from Georgia. She had been arrested before for cocaine and a DUI in Georgia, and served time in prison. She was also arrested for disorderly conduct in Panama City Beach, but deputies said they aren't sure how she ended up in Central Florida.

Sheriff’s office spokesperson Lourdes Clayton said a passer-by walking in a field found McCarson and her body was "not intact.”

Several deputy cruisers were at the scene and part of Old Winter Garden Road was blocked in both directions at North Cottage Hill Road, but reopened later in the evening. %

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“Just by the fact of me saying it’s not intact is gruesome enough to make that statement without giving further details on it,” said Clayton.

Deputies hope surveillance video from neighboring businesses captured what led to the grisly scene.

Convenience store owner Sam Sarran said the incident has him on edge.

“I’m shaking right now,” he said. “I mean, if this happened in your neighborhood, you’d be nervous too.”

A nearby resident said he saw a swarm of buzzards on the edge of the wooded area where McCarson's body was found.

"I (saw) a bird just feasting on something down there, so I went down there and (saw) it was a body cut up in pieces, and it was a lot of pieces," John Franklin said.

Franklin said he saw birds flying off with pieces of the victim's body.

The vacant land is owned by the Orlando Union Rescue Mission, a group that helps the homeless.

“I see many homeless people coming in and out all the time, but they were really no harm to us or anybody around here,” said Sarran.

The Rescue Mission said it doesn’t know much, but released a statement that read, “We grieve the loss of any life and we send our condolences.”

Deputies urge anyone who saw something suspicious in the area to call authorities.

A $5,000 reward is being offered for information reported to Crimeline.

Cox Media Group