Police conducting death investigation at home on Hiawatha Drive

ELKHART, Ind. --- Elkhart Police are investigating the death of a person found inside a home on Hiawatha Drive Wednesday afternoon.

Some neighbors said the man who owns the home has been missing for almost a month and fear the body might be him. 

"When the police came yesterday we were scared,” said Edith Ortiz, a neighbor. "To know there was someone that was found in there in my heart I know it’s probably him.”

Evidence technicians and detectives from the Elkhart Police Department and the Elkhart County Homicide Unit continue to investigate. One neighbor said the police were called, by the man's children, to do a welfare check.

A missing person's report showed the man's brother said the last time he was seen was May 13. 

"He was outside in the yard," Ortiz said about the last time she saw him. "He was coming home from work, he waved at me like always, I was coming from the store and I waved at him."

Ortiz said she is shocked that the man has not been seen in a while. She called him an outgoing, friendly, and family oriented person.

“For a while I thought that family was, to my eyes, they were a good family," she said. "He was a really nice husband and a nice dad.”

Officials have not released the person's name.

An autopsy is scheduled for Friday.