FORT MYERS, Fla. - The remains of eight bodies have been found in a wooded area, where investigators believe they had been for several years, police said.

The skeletal remains were found Friday about 25 feet off an unpaved street in Fort Myers, in southwest Florida, police Lt. Brian Phillips said.

No trauma was evident, but investigators were treating the deaths as homicides, Phillips said.

An ecologist discovered the remains while surveying a 10-acre lot for a developer, police spokeswoman Shelly Flynn said. Three skeletons were found at first, and a search turned up five more within a 50-yard radius, detectives said.

Pathologists at the medical examiner's office will try to determine the causes of death