JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — The body of a man found dead near the Kentucky River with nothing in his possession but a pair of wire-framed glasses in his front jacket pocket has still not been identified.
Jessamine County Sheriff’s Office detective Matt Lytle said Monday that efforts to find the man’s family and identity hadn’t turned up any clues, and that he’s hoping the public can help.
The man’s body was found by a hunter on Nov. 16 about three and a half miles upstream from Lock 7.
His body was not in the river or near enough to the water to indicate he’d been washed to the remote area where he was found, Lytle said. After an autopsy, it appears the man died of exposure to the elements, he said.
Along with the mystery of who the man is, investigators are trying to figure out how the man got to where his body was found.
“It's very puzzling,” Lytle said. “You just don't end up there just walking down. It's very rocky, wooded and steep terrain.”
Investigators thought it could be possible the man had gotten to the area by boat, but efforts to locate one – even using radar to detect one that might have sunk – were unsuccessful, Lytle said.
From the mud stains on the man, which went up to the knee on his jeans, investigators believe he could have been in the water at some point.
“We found no knife, nothing,” Lytle said. “That puzzled us because if someone is out hiking or doing something like that they're gonna have other things on them besides a pair of reading glasses.”
Investigators also found no evidence of a camp nearby or any efforts to start a fire, Lytle said.
The man had dressed for cold weather, with multiple thermal shirts, two pairs of long johns, a sweatshirt and a Walls hooded jacket. He was also wearing Blue Wrangler jeans, size 34x32 with a Dickies black leather built and size 11 Brahma shoes.
The man is believed to have been between 50 and 70 years old, was white and 6-foot tall, according to the sheriff’s office. He weighed 171 pounds, had gray hair and a "very full" gray beard.
Investigators ran the man’s fingerprints and have sent information about him to a database that reaches agencies around the country. While several agencies from other areas have reached out, none of the missing persons they were looking for were a match for the man found by the river.
Anyone with information that could help identify the man is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 859-885-4139.
