Body found along highway in West Siloam Springs

WEST SILOAM SPRINGS, Okla. -- Police identified the man whose body was found along U.S. Highway 412 in West Siloam Springs, Okla., on Thursday as Kelvin Dean Boyle, 35, of Missouri.

Police are still investigating how the man came to be found along the highway in the early hours of the morning, said Chief Larry Barnett. The West Siloam Springs Police Department received a call about a body in the road about 5:30 a.m.

Barnett estimated the man had been run over by four or five different vehicles between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. and was too badly mangled to be immediately identified. He was identified using a combination of fingerprints and tattoos, Barnett said.

"There is no way to even be able to tell if it was foul play or if the person was just walking down the road, or if they got into a fight. ... There were no vehicles around, we have no idea where he came from," Barnett said.

The body was found in the eastbound lane, Barnett said. The speed limit along the stretch of four-lane highway is 70 miles per hour, he said.

Several media outlets have reported that man's head was severed, but Barnett said the reports were inaccurate. The man's body was badly damaged, but his head was not missing, he said.

Barnett said his department has interviewed the drivers of several vehicles who ran over the body after it was laying on the road as well as several drivers who witnessed the body in the road. None of the drivers reported initially hitting the body and everyone who saw it thought the body was a deer because it was damaged beyond recognition, he said.

The body was transported to the medical examiner's office in Tulsa, Barnett said. The death is still under investigation, and is the autopsy report will help police determine if foul play was involved, Barnett said.

The Oklahoma State Police and Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation are helping with the investigation, he said.

If anyone has any information about the incident, or if they saw a man walking down the highway or a vehicle stopped along the highway between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m., they are asked to call the West Siloam Springs Police Department at 918-422-5810.

General News on 08/05/2018