Update: Body Found SR16 Off-Ramp Identified

NASHPORT, Ohio – On Sunday, May 19th 10:21 a.m. the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office received a call of what looked like a deceased person lying in a field along the State Route 16 off-ramp to State Route 586.

EMS and the Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the scene and discovered a male. Sheriff Matt Lutz said they discovered Frazeysburg resident, 53-year-old Brian Edward Cope dead at the scene.

“This investigation is still ongoing. I’ve kept Mr. Haddox at the prosecutor’s office versed on what we’ve found. We’ve gone through this case, we’ve talked to Dr. Lee, who did the autopsy,” Sheriff Lutz said. “We had that preliminary report back, the preliminary report is that Mr. Cope died from acute respiratory failure.”

Sheriff Lutz said they are not ready to disclose his injuries yet but it was not a gunshot. Investigators are continuing to treat this as a suspicious death, or a possible self inflicted wound. Sheriff Lutz says there were weapons found that could possibly be involved in this incident.

“There’s a couple different locations this case is involving. Obviously his house, as well as the Park and Ride. That was his vehicle that we did tow from the Park and Ride that was sitting there. His body was discovered, I called it about two football fields, it was about 575 feet from the vehicle to where his final resting spot was,” Sheriff Lutz said.

Cope’s time of death was between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 18th. At this time they have not questioned any possible suspects and they are continuing to investigate. We’ll continue to update you as soon as we learn more.