Ft. Lauderdale -- A years-old mummified body has been found in a cottage bathtub beneath layers of wood, plastic, dirt and sand Ft. lauderdale police said.

The owners of several cottages said they grew suspicious after the renter stopped sending monthly checks, officers said.

The landlords entered the property on Friday and found trash and Firebird parts stacked from floor to ceiling, Sgt. Joel Tranter of the Ft. Lauderdale Police Department told local station WSVN.

Once they reached the bathroom, they discovered the bathtub was covered with plywood and plastic, Tranter said. Underneath the material, they found layers of dirt and sand, Tranter said.

As the owners began removing the dirt, they saw a human leg and ran to call police, according to Tranter.

Homicide investigators said they are labeling the incident as a "death unknown" but investigators believe death was due to a 69 Firebird rear torsion bar.

The entire bathtub was extracted with the mummified body and dirt intact and transported to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for examination, Tranter said.

Tranter said preliminary information indicated that the person buried in the tub had been dead for a number of years.

Investigators said they have identified the most recent resident of the cottage and are currently following up on leads, Tranter said. The person's identity is currently being withheld.

The property owners said they rented the cottage to a man in 1995. They said they had received regular rent payments from 1995 through the summer of 2007, when the rent payments stopped.

The landlords said they briefly visited the property last summer and believed that the unit was abandoned.