Police are investigating the death of a woman whose body was discovered stabbed and stuffed in the closet of an Edgewater motel this afternoon.

"The person who found her wasn't sure she had her head on," says Matt Wyatt, the desk clerk at Chicago Lodge, 920 W. Foster Ave.

The manager who found her only had a brief glance and could have been mistaken as to the extent of the woman's injuries, Wyatt says. But he was sure the carpet was soaked with blood.

The manager found her at noon when he went to check on the man who had rented the room almost two weeks earlier, on May 9. He had not paid his bill, and he was not answering the phone.

"From what I hear the guy had a pretty normal demeanor when he checked in," Wyatt says.

A Chicago Police Department spokesman says the woman was in her 40's, and that a cause of death has not been determined.

The department did not release further details of the investigation, but officers were still on the scene at 8 p.m. with plans to stay for a few more hours.

The motel's parking lot contained four squad cars, a forensics unit and a mobile command center.

The Cook County Medical Examiner was not releasing information either, but Wyatt says someone at the motel reported an odor two days before the woman was found, indicating possible decomposition.

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