Police have launched a murder investigation after a man was found dead in a ‘pool of blood’ at the iconic Burning Man festival in Nevada over Labor Day weekend.
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office was notified by a person who discovered the man around 9.15pm on Saturday as the festival’s ‘Man’ effigy began to burn, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Sheriff Jerry Allen said his deputies and Bureau of Land Management rangers found a man ‘obviously deceased’ at the campsite.
‘Pershing County Sheriff Office deputies and the Bureau of Land Management immediately responded to the campsite and found a single white adult male lying on the ground, obviously deceased,’ the sheriff’s said.
Authorities established a perimeter around the campsite and secured the scene as they launched a homicide investigation.
The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Science Division was brought in to process the scene and collect evidence, according to Allen.
Police interviewed several festivalgoers and said that section of Burning Man’s ‘Black Rock City’ will have a heavy law enforcement presence until the scene is cleared.
The man’s identity has not been confirmed, and his body was taken to the Washoe County Medical Examiner’s Office, the sheriff said.
Police have launched a murder investigation after a man was found dead in a ‘pool of blood’ at the iconic Burning Man festival in Nevada
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office was notified by a person who discovered the man around 9.15pm on Saturday as the festival’s ‘Man’ effigy began to burn (pictured)
Police believe his murder was a ‘singular crime,’ but they urged festivalgoers to remain vigilant.
‘There is no further information available at this time, but it will be released as appropriate to provide for communication, while still preserving the integrity of the complicated investigation of a crime in a city which will be gone by the middle of the week,’ Allen said.
Burning Man organizers released a statement saying they are cooperating with law enforcement and ‘the safety and well-being of our community are paramount.’
‘The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of a single white adult male that occurred the night of Saturday, August 30 in Black Rock City,’ the statement added.
‘Burning Man is cooperating with law enforcement. If you are in Black Rock City, do not interfere with law enforcement activity.’
The Daily Mail has contacted the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office for more information.
Some people have called for the festival to be shutdown in the wake of the potential homicide.
‘Is it enough to shut it down? I mean if it was anything else where one person does during event they would shut it down,’ one person said.
‘Burn burning man down,’ said another. ‘It’s time for this event to go,’ added a third person.
‘They just need to get rid of the burn man because ever year someone dies,’ said a fourth. A fifth person said, ‘This venue needs to be shut down permanently.’
The death comes as more than two dozen people have been transported to the hospital since the festival began on August 24, reported the Reno Gazette Journal.
Of the 31 people taken to a hospital, 11 were transported by air and 20 by ground, Royal Ambulance, according to the medical provider for Black Rock City. Three were resuscitated on the playa with cardiac arrests.
Kayla Thompson, 37, and her husband, Kasey Thompson, 39, were attending their first Burning Man festival on Wednesday morning when they unexpectedly welcomed their daughter
On Wednesday, a Utah woman gave birth to a baby girl in the bathroom of her RV while attending Burning Man.
Kayla Thompson, 37, and her husband Kasey Thompson, 39, were in attendance at the Nevada festival when on Wednesday morning they unexpectedly welcomed their daughter Aurora.
Speaking with The New York Times, Kayla told the outlet she awoke in severe pain and first assumed it was the result of something she ate, or even appendicitis.
Moments later however, the festival-goer was in active labor and with zero warning gave birth to a three-pound, nine-ounce girl in the cramped bathroom of the camper.
All of this was unfolding amid a soaked and chaotic Black Rock Desert, where a seasonal monsoon had already turned the Burning Man festival into a mud-riddled landscape – shutting down entry gates, toppling tents, and stranding thousands.
The terrain was too difficult for ambulances to navigate, according to the Los Angeles Times, but about 10 to 15 minutes after the birth, Black Rock Rangers arrived in an SUV with medics.
They transported Aurora to a medical tent, but because there was only space for one on the Life Flight helicopter, Kasey had to make a gut-wrenching decision – leave his wife or his new baby girl.
The couple then rode separately in an ambulance to a hospital in Reno, more than three hours away over muddy roads.
After finally reuniting with Aurora in the neonatal intensive care unit, Kasey said his daughter ‘was safe and sound’ and that he ‘was so thrilled.’
