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UTAH COUNTY -- A group of ATV riders found a man's body in a remote area of American Fork Canyon Tuesday. Now detectives are looking for answers as to how the man died.
The man was found in a tent, and it appears he had only been dead a short time. The Utah County Sheriff's Office released no information to us officially, although a deputy told KSL 5 News it may not be a suspicious death after all.
The body was found near Mineral Basin, known as Graveyard Flat. The area requires a drive on a very rough and rocky dirt road for about 3 miles beyond Tibble Fork Reservoir.
The ATV riders saw the tent with no vehicle anywhere in the area and wondered if it had been abandoned. But when they approached the tent they could tell something was wrong.
"I didn't try to wake him up. I initially pulled on the tent. When I pulled on the tent I could tell that there was something in there. Usually when somebody's, you know, intoxicated, they'll kind of snap out of it or kind of move around. I knew, at that point, that it was more than just somebody that was intoxicated. I knew that he was deceased at that point," said Josh Sumner, one of the men who found the body.
Sumner quickly called 911. He described the man as someone who appeared to be in his mid-20s and said he could not see any obvious signs of trauma to the body. But Sumner said he did notice there was a lot of beer inside the tent.
Several detectives from the sheriff's office spent the evening at the scene along with U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers. The medical examiner arrived to the scene just 9 p.m.
Though there are no obvious signs of foul play, detectives are working to sort out what happened and determine if the man was alone or if he may have been abandoned if he died from an overdose.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
