Body found southeast of town in river

A badly decomposed male body was pulled late Wednesday afternoon from the Washita River about a half mile north of the Washita County line southeast of Clinton.
Custer County Sheriff Kenneth Tidwell said a fisherman reported seeing the body near a bend of the river. The location was approximately half a mile north of County Line Road (1070) and half a mile west of Custer County Road 2290.
Tidwell said there was no way to determine at the scene if foul play was involved.
“We don’t believe the body was placed where it was found,” he said. “We think because of the recent rains the river was up and it came from somewhere upstream. The body was badly decomposed and had no clothing.”
But the sheriff said he’s been told that’s not unusual either for a body floating down a river. “Clothing will get caught on brush or other obstacles and tear off,” he said.
Tidwell said authorities were unable to determine the person’s age or race but he did have long hair. Because of that, he said they were leaning toward Native American but could not be sure.
County Medical Examiner Kathy Valentine was called to the scene, and the body was transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Oklahoma City for further examination.
Tidwell said his office received a call about 4 p.m. Wednesday from a fisherman who had spotted the body. When lawmen and Clinton firemen arrived at the scene, it was above the water line caught on some brush. The sheriff said it was not on the bank.
The location was about 4½ miles east of U.S. Highway 183 and half a mile north into a field.
“We responded and confirmed it was human remains,” said Tidwell. “We also called for the Crime Scenes Division of OSBI (the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) to assist us.”
The sheriff said his office has received no reports of anyone missing within the time period that might be involved and he had checked with the Clinton Police Department which also had no open reports of a missing person who might fit the description of the body.
Asked about possible foul play, he said there were no obvious signs of trauma but indicated again that the body was badly decomposed.
“Right now we don’t have a clue who it might be,” he said. “I think it was obvious to the officers he had been there for quite some time.”
The Clinton Fire Department also responded to the scene.
“We assisted the state medical examiner with the recovery,” said Chief Forrest Valentine. “We had two personnel on the scene, Calvin Baggett and Blake Shaddon. They assisted with ropes and a Stokes basket.”
Valentine explained that a Stokes basket is basically a litter with shallow sides. He said it’s normally used in rescue operations “to get people out of bad situations,” but can also be used in recoveries like this.
His men were on the scene close to an hour and a half, said Valentine.