A body found in northeast Jefferson County is believed to be a Birmingham man missing since the weekend.

Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies were called shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday to the 5200 block of Dewey Heights Road on a report of an abandoned vehicle.

Lt. Joni Money said vehicle appeared to have been intentionally covered to conceal it. There was also evidence of the possibility of someone deceased in the area.

Detectives and a cadaver dog were called to the location to further the investigation. Human remains were located.

Investigators with the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office were called to the location Wednesday morning to collect the remains for identification and notification of the family.

Money said the body has not been identified, but the found car matched the description of the Honda Civic belonging to 38-year-old Jewel Jones Bendolph. Family said Bendolph’s car was a 1999 silver, four-door Honda Civic with Alabama license plate number 1FB8610.

There was evidence of foul play, Money said, and the death is being investigated as a homicide.

Family said they were notified midday of his death.

“I’m not OK,’’ said Bendolph’s sister, Monica Bendolph.

As investigators were at the crime scene, family and friends had gathered in east Birmingham and were actively searching for the victim.

Bendolph was last seen alive about 4 a.m. Sunday at the BP gas station in Birmingham’s Mason City which is near Ishkooda Road.

He called his grandmother’s phone at 5:07 a.m. Sunday but he said nothing.

Instead, family said, his grandmother could hear a struggle and Bendolph saying, “Get off me. Don’t touch me.”

Bendolph had not been heard from since then.

Not yet knowing his body may have been found, his loved ones were determined to try to find him. They started where his phone had last “pinged” off a tower in the Roebuck and Center Point areas.

“My whole family is upset, sick,’’ said Fred Spencer, Bendolph’s first cousin. The two were raised as brothers.

“We’ve told the police who we think he was around,’’ Spencer said. “I’ve never experienced this in my life.”

Bendolph’s aunt, Felicia Lewis, began searching with a friend at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday on the southwest side of town, in the Oxmoor and Wenonah areas, among others.

“We’ve got to leave no stones unturned,’’ she said before Bendolph’s body was found. “I can’t sit at home all day. I’m not sleeping, I’m crying all day. That’s not a life for nobody.”

Money said the body has been taken to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office for identification, as well as to determine the cause and manner of death.

Sheriff’s investigators and Birmingham police will work together to investigate.

Anyone with information is asked to call sheriff’s investigators at 205-325-1450 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.