A Georgia Department of Transportation employee found a dead man with a gunshot wound to the head in a car Wednesday along Interstate 85 in Jefferson, police said.

Jefferson Police are investigating the death along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Police Chief Joe Wirthman said law enforcement was dispatched Wednesday morning to I-85 roughly a quarter-mile south of Exit 137.

Wirthman said DOT was working in the area, and an employee was attempting to block a lane.

“He walked past it and, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a body in the car,’” the chief said.

Inside the black Kia from South Carolina was a white man in his mid 20s, Wirthman said.

“A firearm was retrieved out of the car,” Wirthman said.

GBI and police cleared the scene around 2:30 p.m., and the investigation is being classified as an “open suspicious death.” The body is on its way to the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

Wirthman said authorities are unsure how long the body might have been there.