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WEST VALLEY CITY — Police say they don't believe a body found in a drainage culvert behind a vacant Kmart Friday afternoon ended up there by accident.
"It's obviously suspicious," West Valley Police Lt. Kent Stokes said. "We're concerned for how a body got into a drainage culvert."
Police responded to a report of a body found in the vacant building, located 1770 W. 4100 South, about 12:20 p.m., West Valley Police Sgt. Scott Arnold said.
A survey crew inspecting the property for a potential new development at the location found the body after opening a lid to an underground drainage culvert in a parking lot behind the building and called police, Arnold said.
He added the body was partially submerged in water when police arrived to investigate. Crews, including a dive team, were able to remove the body from the culvert and it was sent to the state medical examiner's office Friday evening.
It was also too early to tell the gender or the age of the body, Arnold said. Authorities added it was also too early to determine how long the body had been in the culvert or a cause of death.
Contributing: Ladd Egan
