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SALT LAKE CITY — Police officers looking for the family of a boy who had not been picked up from school Friday stumbled across three people dead in a Salt Lake home.
Few details about the circumstances were released. The bodies were located Friday evening and detectives are treating the deaths as suspicious.
Police were led to the bodies after trying to put an 8-year-old boy in touch with his family after nobody came to pick him up from Escalante Elementary School, 1810 W. 900 North.
School officials tried contacting multiple family members before calling police and informing them the boy's family was unreachable, said Salt Lake police detective Dennis McGowan.
Officers took the boy to three separate homes where his relatives live, finding nobody there, before coming to a home in the city's Westpointe neighborhood at 639 N. Sir Philip Drive (1990 West) around 5 p.m.
A police officer checked the home and found the back door ajar, McGowan said. He went inside, calling out for family members of the boy. Instead, the officer came upon three bodies.
Investigators were determining the relationships of the three deceased individuals and their relationship to the boy, but their deaths are considered suspicious, McGowan said. Their identities, including gender and approximate age, were not immediately released.
"We don't believe there's any danger or risk to the community," McGowan said.
The boy was placed into the custody of "an adult family nearby in the neighborhood," according to McGowan. The boy is in good condition, he said.
Several neighbors said a man around the age of 20 was taken into custody at the home around 6 p.m. They said he was dressed in boxer shorts and a sweatshirt.
One neighbor said the same man ran a car into his mailbox three weeks ago. He said he wasn't sure if the man was drunk or not paying attention. Police did not comment about any arrests or suspects in the case.
Contributing: Tori Jorgensen, Andrew Adams
