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Amanda Butterfield Reporting This morning an autopsy is being done on a body found on the roof of a Salt Lake County building. A rotten smell led to the gruesome discovery.
"My brother came running around and said, 'There's a dead guy on the roof.' We made him tell us three or four times before we believed what it was."
This one has residents and even the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department stumped. The biggest clue is what was found in the man's hand.
The body was taken off that roof near 3600 South and 700 East, and taken to the medical examiner's office. Investigators are waiting to find out how the man died.
The body was found about 3:00 Monday afternoon. No one saw it at first. They could just smell it.
Carter Smith: "The smell got worse and worse and worse."
Carter Smith and his brother were working at their business as usual, at the Lange Originals building, but they couldn't focus.
Carter Smith/Found Body: "A bad smell kept coming through all day long."
And if it wasn't the smell, it was their dogs distracting them.
Carter Smith: "The dogs kept running out with something on them, and we just thought they found a dead cat or a dead animal."
Finally, the two decided to snoop around themselves, on the roof.
Carter Smith: "Just like on CSI, there was a dead guy laying up there on the roof."
So they called police.
Sgt. Kris Ownby/SL County Sheriff's Depart.: "We can tell it's most likely a male based on his clothing, and that's about it."
The man's body was decomposing so badly his face was unrecognizable. And he'd been lying on the roof in the 90 degree heat for at least two days, which explains the smell.
Joshua Hoskins/Resident: "It was kind of like garbage, like someone didn't take the garbage out."
In the man's hands, a ladder. But he didn't work here. And everyone who lives here, and their friends, are accounted for. So what was he doing on the roof with a ladder?
Sgt. Ownby: "This could be a likely intruder. But we don't know at this point. It's too early."
Investigators did find a wallet on the man. Apparently he's 22, but they're not releasing his name yet -- they're waiting for the autopsy results.
