Police: No Foul Play Suspected After Body Found Near Tulsa Drainage Ditch

Tulsa Police are trying to track down the family of a man found dead Wednesday in west Tulsa. Men working on a fence discovered the body on a steep embankment near a large drainage ditch.

The call came in around noon and the Tulsa fire department spent nearly three hours afterward trying to get to the body and get it to the ground

"I was like, ‘What in the world is going on?' Then my neighbor told me, "They found a body over there," Polly Miller, a nearby resident, said.

Someone discovered the man's body halfway down this embankment on an out-cropping of rocks and trees.

The man was in a seated position, slumped over and he was wearing only shorts. At the top of the embankment are the empty Riviera West apartments and at the bottom is a storm water drainage ditch.

"I look over there every day and I never noticed it over there until today and that's why it is so shocking," Miller said.

The location and terrain made the recovery challenging for everyone involved.

"As you look, it's a very steep, very sheer cliff. It's covered with lots of rocks, it's heavily wooded. Very difficult to get to the body," Corporal George Frye, Tulsa Police, said.

The medical examiner had to rappel down to the body to investigate before firefighters could move him. When she was done, Tulsa fire's heavy rescue task force - which trains for situations like this once a month - had to lower the body to the ground.

Investigators say this may have been an accident or suicide.

"There's no obvious signs of foul play, but it's very early in the investigation. We, at this point, just don't know the circumstances of how it came to be there," Corporal Frye said.

Tulsa police say the man's body appears to have been there for quite some time - at least several weeks, more likely several months.

Police say the man's name doesn't match any Tulsa missing person reports. They're now looking at other cities to see if he was reported missing.