A man who was found dead “lying in a pool of blood” at the Burning Man arts and music festival over the weekend was identified as a resident of Washington State who came from Russia, the authorities said Wednesday.
The man was found “obviously deceased” on Saturday at the event’s campsite, Sheriff Jerry Allen of Pershing County, Nev., said in a statement on Sunday. His body was taken to the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office, which late on Tuesday identified him as Vadim Kruglov, 37, using fingerprints, Sheriff Allen said in a statement on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear how Mr. Kruglov died. The medical examiner’s office did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday evening.
The death prompted a homicide investigation by local and federal officials, which Sheriff Allen said was continuing. The authorities are seeking “any and all information” that could lead to an arrest, he said.
The sheriff’s office asked the public on Monday for help in identifying the victim, who they said stood 6-feet tall, weighed about 200 pounds, and had short brown hair and facial hair.
Mr. Kruglov’s family has been notified, Sheriff Allen said. The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately return to a request for comment on Wednesday evening.
Deputies responded around 9:14 p.m. on Saturday to a report of a man on the ground at the event’s campsite.
The report came as the festival’s towering wooden sculpture, which is shaped like a man, was beginning to burn.
Several participants who had been in the immediate area were interviewed, the sheriff said. There was a heavy law enforcement presence at the scene as multiple Nevada state agencies responded, including rangers from the federal Bureau of Land Management, which manages the public land where the festival takes place.
In a statement, the organizers of Burning Man said that the festival was grieving the loss of a community member and offered their condolences to Mr. Kruglov’s family.
The organizers said that the festival is assisting the sheriff office’s investigation and plans to coordinate a donation to Secret Witness,a program that pays anonymous tipsters for information that could help the authorities investigate a crime.
The festival, which began on Aug. 24 and ended on Monday, draws tens of thousands of people each year to Black Rock City, a temporary metropolis that pops up each year in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, more than 100 miles northeast of Reno, Nev.
Hannah Ziegler is a general assignment reporter for The Times, covering topics such as crime, business, weather, pop culture and online trends.
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