Body found in vacant lot

Department of Public Safety crime scene investigators, including DPS’ homicide team under the Major Crimes Investigation unit, and police officers await a briefing on how to proceed with the investigation. (KIMBERLY ESMORES)

A male body was found in an advanced stage of decomposition deep in a vacant lot in Chalan Kanoa.

The decomposed body was found in the jungles of the vacant lot right next to Triple J Truckload Store and across the Mount Carmel Cathedral in Chalan Kanoa at around 2:20pm last Friday. Although his identity has yet to be confirmed, family members who have reported him missing several weeks ago identified him as the 38-year-old Chuukese man they have been looking for.

The man is believed to have been dead for at least two weeks prior to the discovery of his body.

The investigation into the man’s cause of death continues. Police have yet to determine if the man died of natural causes, or if foul play was involved.

At around 3:30pm, Department of Public Safety crime scene investigators, including DPS’ homicide team under the Major Crimes Investigation unit, and police officers were all over the vacant lot as they awaited briefing on how to proceed with the investigation.

Although the body was reportedly found at around 2:20pm, when Saipan Tribune got on scene at around 3:30pm, the investigators had yet to proceed with their investigation.

“The report is still very new to us so we are still waiting to be briefed before we can proceed with our investigation,” said a homicide investigator on scene at 3:40pm.

In an interview with assistant chief of police Capt. Simon Manacop at the scene, he said he could only share minimal details of the investigation because, as of 4pm, the preliminary investigation report had yet to be completed.

“The man was found in [an] advance stage of decomposition; he was reported missing on Thursday. When he was found, we were notified so we have yet to complete a preliminary report,” he said.

Manacop did share that the body was found and called in by the family of the deceased as they had been searching for him for weeks prior to reporting him missing.

“The family mentioned that they came to the area before earlier on in their search, but they didn’t find him here. This is their second time searching the area when they found him. For us, the body was just reported today. The way it looks, the man might have been dead for at least two weeks. I cannot determine right now if the death involved foul play or if it was a natural death. It is still an ongoing investigation,” he said.

Saipan Tribune also spoke with family members on the scene and the man’s brothers said they found him in the jungle at around 2pm before reporting the body to police.

Although they did not want to disclose the name of the deceased, they did share that he was missing for about two weeks and they had been searching for him since.

However, according to DPS, the man was only officially reported missing the day before his body was found.