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GREEN RIVER, Emery County — Police have identified the woman whose decaying body was found next to the Green River last week.
Michelle Marie Went, 48, was the woman found on the west bank of the river on Oct. 29, the Emery County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Went lived in the city of Green River and had resided there since at least 2011, said sheriff's office spokeswoman Janalee Luke.
Went was last seen Oct. 3, according to police interviews, but lived alone and was never reported missing, Luke said.
Investigators are still unsure how Went died and haven't found evidence either indicating or ruling out foul play. A medical examiner's report submitted Wednesday evening was inconclusive as to the cause of death, according to Luke.
"For that to change, that will be dependent on the ongoing investigation," she said, noting that no further autopsies are anticipated.
The medical examination was reportedly limited by the decomposed state of the body, though police don't know precisely how long Went had been dead before she was found.
Deputies say nobody has reported Went acting unusually before she went missing. Police came upon the body on a sandbar about a mile south of where I-70 crosses the Green River after receiving a call from someone who had discovered it. Went appeared to be washed up from the river, and no human tracks were found in the area, according to Luke.
The families of multiple missing people began calling the Emery County Sheriff's Office after the agency asked for the public's help in the case earlier this week. One friend of Went's called and said they were worried about her after not hearing from her "in some time," Luke said.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Emery County Sheriff's Office at 435-381-2404.
