MANCHESTER, Conn. -- Police are working to determine the identity of a body found buried in Manchester.

Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Len Besthoff reported that officers received at tip about the body while conducting a separate investigation.

Manchester police executed a search warrant at 55 Lake St., looking for the body of Christopher Petrozza, a 25-year-old man from Ellington who was reported missing nine months ago.

Police went to the home based on information developed by Detective Jeff Lampson during a separate investigation.

Besthoff reported that police found the body early Tuesday afternoon behind a shed in the home's back yard. The body was buried about 3.5 feet underground, according to police.

The property where the body was found is owned by 35-year-old Chadwick St. Louis, a convicted felon who is currently in prison on firearms and counterfeiting charges, according to police.

Besthoff reported that in February, St. Louis was arrested on charges of having seven illegal guns in his home.

During the investigation into the other charges, police said St. Louis admitted to killing Petrozza but claimed that it was an accident.

"He panicked and buried the body. He wouldn't give us a location as to where the body was, but we were able to do some investigating on our own, and we were very confident about one area of the residence where we thought it might be," said Sgt. Christopher Davis of the Manchester Police Department. "They were friends, and I believe he used to work for him. Mr. St. Louis had a landscaping business Mr. Petrozza used to work for."

Police must still determine if the found body is that of Petrozza. The state medical examiner's office has yet to determine the man's cause of death, although Besthoff reported that police believe it was blunt-force trauma.

Besthoff reported that St. Louis' arrest warrant details numerous convictions dating back almost two decades for charges ranging from burglary and robbery to possession of a dangerous weapon.

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