SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – October 1, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – Two hikers up Emigration Canyon stumbled across a badly decomposed body Wednesday evening.
According to Unified Police Detective Jared Richardson, the original call came in around 7 p.m. to Salt Lake City Police dispatch. “They sent their officers up to locate the body and once they were able to determine the victim’s exact location, they contacted Unified Police to take over the investigation,” Richardson said. “We sent one of our canyon officers up by way of ATV to contain the area around 9:30 p.m.”
Richardson said the body had been there for quite some time and although they found a form of identification near the victim, they have yet to confirm if the ID belongs to the man they found. “We believe he is a homeless male,” Richardson said. “We are still attempting to locate any next of kin based on what little information we have at this time.”
Twelve Search and Rescue officers, canyon officers with Unified, investigators and the medical examiner were able to contain the area and remove the body from the mountain around 1 a.m. The medical examiner’s office has yet to determine a cause of death. Richardson said the body was so decomposed they were unable to determine if there was any trauma to the body.
According to Richardson investigators are back on scene today to scope the area where the body was found and attempt to find more answers to who the man was and how he died.
Gephardt Daily will update as soon as more information becomes available.
