A friend of mine might have found a dead body......

[Wcross]

My friend whom I have known from the first day of grade school called me last night. We talk once a month or so and he mentioned he has been looking for the body of a missing teenager in the Rochester,N.Y. area.

He says when he heard about the teen missing he decided to take his dog for a walk in the area and maybe help in the search effort. When he got to the area as he puts it "some asshole volunteer fireman" told him he couldn't walk his dog in the area and to get the hell out of there. He says he watched the searchers and they worked the wooded areas but didn't go near the swamp area. He says he heard they didn't locate the body so he went back out there with the dog and started looking in the swamp. He says on the day he went it was in the 40's-50's after a long freeze. He thinks he smelled something but couldn't pin point the exact area because he kept falling through the ice. The problem is he says it is pretty far from where the kid was last seen and it could be anything that died around there. (deer, dog ect....) I urged him to call the cops but he isn't sure so he won't. He said he was going out again today with some chest waders (even though the temps are in the 20's).
I guess the body isn't going anywhere and he says the cops have stopped searching so I guess no harm done if he does it by himself.

I can't wait til the next time we talk, to see if he really did find the body.

On edit; Friend mentioned it was a "kid" missing- I looked up the story and it was a 24 y/o man. (I guess when you hit 40- 24 is a kid)

Also, no foul play is suspected. The guy was with friends, he got pissed off and exited a car on a night that was near 0 degrees and was not dressed for the weather. He called other friends to pick him up but never arrived at the place. It isn't a murder- just a drunk freezing to death.

[democracyindanger]

1. If he doesn't watch it, he could become a suspect

A guy nosing around a potential crime scene, unwilling to contact the police? Just sayin'.

[Gyre]

2. If I were you

I would counsel him to: 1) call the police, get the name of the person he spoke to, and tell them what he knows. Record that information somewhere. 2) If the police don't conduct another search, then I guess it doesn't hurt for him to proceed on his own, but....he cannot "contaminate the field" by mucking around w/o knowing what he'd doing. 3) If he finds the body have him leave the area immediately. 4) IMPORTANT: A dog off leash is only going to "contaminate the field".

Gyre

[Wcross]

3. The cops have given up

He said he is just going to check out the smell. It appears to be a case of drunk freezing to death so there isn't really a crime scene. He isn't the type to even touch anything in the area.

[n2mark]

4. Crime or not

he could be asking for trouble.

[Wcross]

5. Thats what I told him.

Hes the kind of guy that won't listen to anybody. I can't recall how many times I have been able to say "I told ya so".

[uppityperson]

6. call the cops, stay out of trouble himself.

[auntAgonist]

7. he NEEDS to tell the police.

good heavens the 'body' is someone's family member. how very sad.