Burning Man Festival Death investigated as homicide

A murder investigation was launched in the Burning Man Festival in the American state of Nevada after a man was found “lying in a blood -pond” on Saturday evening, police said.

A festival stopped a police officer around 9:14 pm (04:14 GMT) to alert him to the incident and the man was found “lying on the ground, obviously deceased” in a campsite, said the Sheriff’s office of the county of Pershing of Nevada.

The body was discovered as the man – an imposing structure that lends the festival for its name – began to burn. The identity of the victim is not known.

Burning Man Project said that he was cooperating with the police and urged those of the festival not to interfere with the investigation.

Part of the Black Rock desert site was completed while the police on the spot began to investigate a legal medicine team.

The Sheriff Jerry Allen said that “several participants in the immediate region” were interviewed.

“Although this act seems to be a singular crime, all participants should always be vigilant about their environment and their knowledge,” warned the Allen sheriff.

An important police presence had to stay on the scene when the investigation continued.

Burning Man attracts tens of thousands of participants in Black Rock City – whom the organizers describe as “a temporary metropolis” in the desert to welcome the festival, which ends this year on Monday.

Deaths were reported during the festival in the past, notably a death under torrential rains in 2023 and a man who met the man while he was on fire in 2017.