BATON ROUGE - A teenager was found shot to death in the Southdowns neighborhood early Thursday morning, sources told the WBRZ Investigative Unit.

Sources said that a teen's body was found in the middle of Poplar Street near Lee Drive around 2 a.m. People in the area assumed the person had been hit by a car, but the teen had been shot and killed. 

Sources said family members of the victim woke up Thursday and could not find the teen, sparking a search for a missing child. 

Sources told WBRZ that Baton Rouge Police officers are investigating the situation as a homicide. 

No additional information was immediately available.