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Richard Piatt ReportingAn unpleasant discovery in Big Cottonwood Canyon sparks a homicide investigation for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department. A hiker, who wants to remain anonymous, discovered the body late Tuesday afternoon, but even now many details are unknown.
The biggest unknown right now: Who is it? The only thing the Sheriff's Department will say is that it is the body of a man.
The body was found face down in a creek near the Dogwood campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
According to police, there are complications to identifying this person. The first, the fact that his remains appear to have been there a while. The second, the lack of clues about what may have happened. That means an autopsy will probably be necessary, and that police will be relying on tips from the public and on missing person reports.
Peggy Faulkner, Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department: "The hiker flagged us down. And we stopped and they said, ‘I think I found a dead body.’ So we went down to the location with them and there is a body there. At this point it's a suspicious death. We don't know whether it's homicide, suicide, natural causes, accidental. We don't know yet."
Detectives should have more information on the case Wednesday, according to Deputy Faulkner. For now the person's identity is unknown, as is his cause of death.
