Associated Press

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Mayor Bruce Wilkerson said he found a woman hiding in a cellar Wednesday morning after he heard noises and smelled cigarette smoke outside a home he was renovating, WNKY-TV reported.

When he checked the cellar, he told police, he found traces of blood on the cellar’s doors and a bag containing women’s leggings.

Wilkerson saw the woman when he went back to the cellar a second time, the Bowling Green Daily News reported. He said a young woman with dark hair told him she was “hiding from someone” before she ran away into the street.

The mayor said he doesn’t know when the woman started living in his cellar but noted she did not steal anything from the house. Wilkerson said he wanted to let people know about the report before “a story would come out that I had a lady locked up in my cellar.”

Police have not identified a suspect.