A man in his 20s was found dead near Avalon Park on the South Side more than a month after someone first called police to report seeing his body there, authorities said.



The 23-year-old man had been reported missing in December, according to police. Around 4 p.m. on Jan. 5, a person had called police to report a man dead in the bushes, according to authorities. Police canine units were called to the park but no body was found.



Around 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, the man's mother called police and said she had found her son's body by the tennis courts at the far southwest end of the park, near abandoned railroad tracks, a police source said.



Police found the body of the 23-year-old near the 1200 block of East 83rd Street and detectives were conducting a death investigation, according to Officer Michelle Tannehill, a Chicago police spokeswoman. It was not clear whether the man suffered any trauma.



The man, who would have turned 24 next week, disappeared sometime after Dec. 22, according to a missing person bulletin issued by Chicago police on Jan. 6.



The man was last seen in the area of the 11400 block of South Calumet Avenue, but the missing person bulletin noted he regularly spent time in the area of the 8100 block of South Avalon Avenue — just blocks from where the body was found.