Police seek public's help with identifying Burning Man homicide victim

Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times on Sep 1, 2025

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After a man was found lying in a pool of blood at the Burning Man festival in Nevada, the apparent victim of a homicide, authorities said Monday that they were seeking the public's help to determine the identity of the victim and solve the crime.

"We are specifically looking to identify the white, male adult decedent," according to a news release from the Pershing County Sheriff's Department.

The dead man, the release said, is 35 to 40 years old, with short brown hair and facial hair. He is about 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds.

The release also said the Sheriff's Department is seeking information about "any person who would commit such a heinous crime against another human being."

The man's body was discovered shortly after the giant effigy of "Burning Man" was lighted on fire. Authorities have not released a specific cause of death.

It was a shocking end to the festival, which draws tens of thousands of people each year to a desolate area about 120 miles north of Reno for a nine-day celebration of "community, art, self-expression and self-reliance."

About 9:15 p.m. Saturday, a festival-goer approached a sheriff's deputy to report that he had found a body in one of the campsites.

Believing the death was a homicide, deputies and rangers from the Bureau of Land Management began interviewing festival attendees to try to piece together what happened.

But two days later — the final day of Burning Man — detectives were still seeking leads. "At this time, no information is too small to disregard, so do not hesitate to contact" detectives, the sheriff said.

The Burning Man Project, the nonprofit that organizes the festival, said in a statement on its website that it was cooperating with law enforcement and that peer support counselors were available on the grounds.

The festival this year was also the site of an unexpected birth when a 36-year-old woman went into labor in her RV. The woman said she had been unaware she was pregnant. An obstetrician who happened to be in the nearby campsite helped deliver the baby girl.