By Hector Gutierrez News Staff Writer Denver detectives Saturday were investigating the death of a man found in a field in lower downtown as a homicide. The body is partially decomposed and detectives believe the man may have been dead three to six weeks, police Sgt. Tony Lombard said.
Detectives are unsure how the victim died and are waiting for autopsy results.
Workers clearing weeds from a field in the area of 19th and Lipan streets discovered the body Friday afternoon. Detectives also have been probing the September slayings of four transients in LoDo and other assaults on homeless victims. Police have been trying to determine whether the attacks are linked. Detectives have said Michael Leathers of Littleton also is a suspect in the beating of another transient during the early morning of Sept. 26, though he has not been charged in that assault. However, detectives have been unable to link the results of blood samples taken from Leathers to evidence found at the crime scenes where four homeless men were found beaten to death.