TAMPA, Fla. -- Sheriff's office investigators were searching Friday for the killer of a 13-year-old boy whose body was discovered in the woods at a park near his north Tampa home.

The body of seventh-grader Stephen Donald Tomlinson was discovered at about 7:40 p.m. Thursday by some teenagers walking through the county park, said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

The boy suffered "trauma to his upper torso," Carter said, without releasing further details of the condition of the body pending a medical examiner's report.

Witnesses at the scene told WFTS-TV that the boy's body was found with blood on his ears and nose, with his pants down around his feet. They also described a suspicious man they saw carrying a large flashlight while throwing away latex gloves that appeared to have blood on them.

"He was freaking out. He had the gloves on and then he was throwing the gloves away. And we were like, if you don't have nothing to hide, why you got to throw the gloves away?" Laura Henriquez recalled.

Investigators said a possible suspect was interviewed at the scene but was not held by deputies. Carter called him "a person of interest" in the case.

Residents, meanwhile, said the neighborhood was generally safe, but they complained about the fact that the park has no lights and also worried about several registered sex offenders known to live in the area. Investigators have yet to determine if either of those factors played a role in the crime.