Ghastly find turns out to be hoax in Egg Harbor Township, NJ

🚨 Child's 'body' found in South Jersey marsh

🚨 Police mobilize a huge response

🚨 Incident turns out to be a hoax

A ghastly find in the marshes of Egg Harbor Township turned out to be a hoax.

A fisherman found what he thought was a child's body lying in a marshy area of Ocean Drive off Longport Boulevard about 7 a.m. Wednesday.

The body was wrapped in a blanket and duct tape and was within walking distance of the roadways.

Police mobilized a large response with help from the New Jersey State Police and the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.

The area around the discovery was cordoned off for hours while the investigation was conducted.

Not a real child

Police say the body turned out to be a life-sized anatomically correct doll.

"Originally believed to be a human wrapped inside a blanket and duct tape," Egg Harbor Police wrote on Facebook, "Was in fact a silicone anatomically correct doll."

Egg Harbor Township Police Capt. Cherie Burgan told NJ.com it was set up "to look like a homicide."

Now police are looking for who placed the doll in the marsh.

"Police will continue to investigate who may have discarded the lifelike doll," police said on social media, "And why they chose to do so in a way that wasted valuable resources while it was investigated."

If you know anything about the situation, police are hoping you will contact them.

What kind of doll was this?

Police did not provide details about the doll and where it may have been manufactured or sold.

However, life-like human dolls are sold by multiple companies on retail websites like Amazon.com and other platforms.

These dolls can range in price from a few hundred dollars to as much as $10,000 for customized versions.

Similar dolls made headlines in 2016 when it was revealed investigators found life-like child dolls in Michael Jackson's mansion following his death.

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