The badly burned body of a young man was found Saturday in Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park, authorities said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is helping local authorities investigate the discovery, spokesperson Nelly Miles said. Stone Mountain Department of Public Safety spokesperson John Bankhead said an autopsy by the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office was scheduled for Monday.
A hiker came across the body and reported it to authorities at about 8:18 a.m. Saturday, Bankhead said by phone. He described the location of the discovery as the side of the mountain opposite its walking trail and about 100 or more yards from a tower for its Summit Skyride, a Swiss cable car line to the top.
Bankhead said the location is not remote but is rarely hiked. “I hike here all the time and I didn’t know that was there,” he said.
The spokesperson told NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta: “It’s very odd, peculiar, no one that I’ve talked to that’s worked out here for years has seen anything like this at the park.”
He said Saturday night that authorities have a prospective identity for the man but have not verified it. Personal belongings, including a vehicle parked in the area, led investigators to the possible name, he said.
Authorities told WXIA that the fire associated with the body was also a focus for DeKalb County Fire Rescue Department arson investigators.
The park includes attractions like a lakeside resort and is run by a state authority and an amusement park management contractor.
It has drawn demonstrations and split opinions over what the park describes as the “largest high relief sculpture in the world” — a depiction of Confederate figures Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The first part of the sculpture was completed in 1924 and the last in 1972.
The mountain is about 20 miles east of Atlanta.
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