Anchorage police say they are investigating the death of a 36-year-old man found dead in Midtown as a homicide.
Officers located Conrad Claye Jr. just before 7 a.m. June 22, police said. His body was on the ground in the woods near Northern Lights Boulevard and the Seward Highway. Police did not initially classify the death as a homicide but said officers “made observations which are prompting a closer look.”
The department classified the investigation as a homicide the next day.
A spokeswoman for the police department would not answer questions Thursday morning about the homicide investigation, including how Claye died or what the circumstances surrounding his death were. No arrests had been made by Thursday.
Claye’s death was one of three homicides within a week. A 26-year-old man was shot to death in East Anchorage on Saturday. Charging documents filed against the man accused in the killing linked the violence to gang activity. Another man was fatally shot at Taku Lake Park late Tuesday.
In total, 16 people have died by homicide so far this year.