Boardman Death Under Investigation

By Patrick Sullivan | March 21, 2018

Police say there were no obvious signs of foul play in the case of a man found dead near the mouth of the Boardman River Tuesday, but are still calling the death suspicious.

The deceased – a 45- to 50-year-old Native American man – was spotted by a person walking a dog near the Murchie Bridge at 8:10am Tuesday. The bridge crosses the river at its mouth, just west of where Front Street and Grandview Parkway merge.

Traverse City Police closed off the area, conducted an investigation and collected the body to be taken to an autopsy in Kalamazoo.

Chief Jeff O’Brien says there was an empty bottle of alcohol on the ground near where the body was found but they do not know whether the man had been drinking. Investigators believe the man drowned, but they aren’t sure how he got into the river; they didn’t find evidence of a struggle or that someone else had been present when the man went into the water.

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