LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -
"Shocked, very shocked," Travis Hudson said.
Just before 10 a.m. Friday, two sheriff's deputies and a volunteer knocked on the door of Travis Hudson's home on McKinley Street in Lake Placid.
"Asked if they could walk through the backyard and through the woods a little bit, didn't see anything, walked next door, wasn't 10 minutes later and there was 30 cops," Hudson said.
That's because police made a grisly discovery along the wood line behind the home of the elderly resident there.
"We believe it to be the body of Seth Kilburn," Lake Placid Police Chief Bill Moore said.
Police had been looking for Kilburn, 34, all week. He was last seen walking out of Wise Guys Nightclub early Sunday morning. His body was found less than one-quarter mile from the bar and about 700 feet from his home on Mill Pond Drive, where lived with his parents.
"There's a path there that I'm sure Mr. Kilburn knew about," Moore said.
At this time, it is believed the lifelong Lake Placid resident died after falling several feet down an embankment. Police say Kilburn's body was in plain sight, but not visible from the road or air. The area had been searched by volunteers and a state police helicopter a few times during the week.
"This morning we decided to re-evaluate our situation," Moore said. "We decided to do a door-to-door search for Mr. Kilburn because there's a lot of neighbors in that area, in particular the older people who were not able to go out and search their yards thoroughly."
Even though it's the outcome no one wanted after a week of searching, this community now has some answers to what happened to the father of two young children.
"I'm glad they found him," Hudson said. "The family will have some closure to it."
An autopsy was conducted on Kilburn's body to determine the exact cause of death. Police hope it will help determine how long Kilburn's body had been in the yard.
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