DELHI TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- A pair of hikers passing by Bender Road Wednesday afternoon discovered a body that had been left lying in a nearby creek for days, Delhi Township police said.
"Had it not been for hikers, we would not have found him for a while," Lt. Joe Macaluso said.
The hikers, a father and his young son, first spotted the victim's car in the creek -- then, next to it, the body. Calls to 911 indicate the father tried to prevent his son from seeing the dead man once he realized what they had found.
Police identified the victim late Wednesday as 73-year-old Harrison resident Robert Adkins and characterized his death as an auto crash.
According to police, Adkins could have been dead for several days before the discovery. Because of the 50-foot drop from the side of the road to the bed of the creek, Macaluso said, the scene was both easy for passersby to overlook and difficult for responders to reach.
“It took us a lot to even get down to him," he said. "We had to rappel down."
Macaluso said police would continue their investigation into the circumstances of Adkins's death.
