(Photo by Jesse Smith)
Investigators from at least three police agencies were searching a wooded area off of the Thruway Exit 19 traffic circle Monday afternoon after a body was discovered there Sunday evening.
Town of Ulster Police Chief Kyle Berardi said Monday that the body of the deceased male was found in the woods off a bike and pedestrian path just off the traffic circle around 8 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 11. Police have not identified the dead man and Berardi said police had not yet determined the cause of death. On Monday morning a sheriff’s office mobile command center was set up on the path that runs past the site along with more than a dozen Town of Ulster police, state police, sheriff’s office and Kingston police vehicles parked nearby. Investigators could be seen conferring around the command center while members of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team stood watch nearby.
The thickets near the traffic circle and along the banks of the Esopus Creek have become a haven for some of Kingston’s homeless population. Some have pitched tents or even built crude dwellings in the area. On July 15, a homeless man was arrested and charged with felony assault after he beat another man with a frying pan in the same wooded area off the path.
Update: Kingston man charged with murder in connection body found near traffic circle
The body was not found on a rail trail… It was found in the vicinity of the pedestrian/cyclist path that was created on the footprint of the original Thruway traffic circle. That path allows those users to bypass the roundabout.