CINCINNATI — Cincinnati police are investigating after a body was found early Thursday, Oct. 15, on a downtown street, an unexplained death that closed a small section of the city center during the early morning hours.
The body was discovered on McFarland Street, the short downtown street that connects Elm and Plum streets near Third Street. A police spokesman said an investigation was underway, and officers worked the scene behind police tape in the pre-dawn hours.
The person was seen face down in the street. Police tape was up and officers were in the area before 6:20 a.m., while most of downtown was still quiet and before the morning commute filled the surrounding streets and parking garages.
The scene did not stay closed for long. By before 7:30 a.m., officers had cleared the area and McFarland Street was open again, leaving early downtown workers and residents with few visible signs of what had happened there a short time earlier.
In their initial report, police released few details. They did not publicly identify the person who died, did not describe the circumstances that led to the discovery, and did not say whether any foul play is suspected. The department indicated its account of the case would be updated as the investigation develops.
That limited information is what Cincinnati residents have to go on for now. Death investigations of this kind generally turn on identification of the person and a determination of how they died, and until police or the Hamilton County coroner’s office release more, the central questions — who this person was and what happened on McFarland Street — remain unanswered.
McFarland Street sits in the heart of downtown, a block from the riverfront corridor and surrounded by offices, parking facilities and the streets that carry Third Street traffic through the center of the city. A discovery there, even one cleared quickly, is the kind of incident that draws attention from the thousands of people who work in and pass through downtown each day.
NewsForce247 will update this story as Cincinnati police release the person’s identity, a cause of death, or any information about what investigators believe happened. Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact Cincinnati police.
