Within hours after the calendar turned over to 2012, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department was already looking for answers when a body was found near the old drag strip.

Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman said the department received a phone call, which triggered the investigation Sunday.

“On New Year’s Day, Sunday afternoon, the Sheriff’s Office received a call of a body located on County Road 74 near the old drag strip,” he said. “A local resident and another man were working on some fence and noticed a body. They, in turn, called the Sheriff’s Office.”

The body was a white male, who was 6-feet tall and weighed 172-pounds. Huffman said he believes, judging by the circumstances, this will be a murder investigation.

“It appears to us and investigators that he died as a result of foul play,” he said.

The department worked the crime scene and notified the Department of Forensic Science as well.

The body was transported to the Montgomery Department of Forensic Science where tests are still underway.

The body, Huffman said, has not been identified.

The department, Huffman said, has already put in long hours to determine if the body was a missing person.

“These boys have been working on it,” he said. “They started around 2:30 p.m. and were still working at 8 p.m. that night.”