Corpse identified as Crawfordsville man

The Putnam County Sheriff's Department has made an identification of the male body found behind Refuse Handling Services on Monday.

Detective Sgt. Pat McFadden confirmed Wednesday afternoon the body was that of Tyler Kirts, 25, Crawfordsville.

Authorities made a positive identification by Wednesday morning, but awaited fingerprint confirmation to officially release Kirts' identity.

"He was found by an employee over at Refuse Handling while they were doing some work out there and came across the body," McFadden said.

A possible cause of death was not revealed, with no mention of whether or not authorities are treating Kirts' death as a homicide.

The body was located on Refuse Handling property at 525 W. Columbia St., but not within the normal work zone. A fence separates this back area where personnel go only for occasional water testing and maintenance.

"Apparently there's a water testing site back in that area where they have their ground water tested every so often," McFadden said. "Apparently this individual was back there with some machinery knocking down some tall grass and that's when (the body) was discovered."

No approximate date of the death has been released, but the body was badly decomposed. PCSD has called in outside experts to assist with the investigation.

"The condition of the body was such that we've brought in an anthropology team and an entomology team in order to help provide us with some additional information that we need," McFadden said.

Also assisting in the investigation is a team from the Putnamville State Police Post, Greencastle Police Department and the Putnam County Coroner's Office.

The body was moved from the site Monday evening, with a medical examination following on Tuesday morning.

"The investigation is far from concluded," McFadden said. "We've basically got all the building blocks in place and it's a matter now of letting everybody do their job in compiling the information before we'll have a release on what our findings are."

According to WLFI in Lafayette, Kirts had a link to Jeremy Gibson, 26, who was murdered in Lafayette in early July. Bruce Gibson, Jeremy's father, said he lived with Kirts' mother when their sons were young. He said Jeremy Gibson and Kirts were close friends.

Gibson told WLFI the last time he saw Kirts was at Jeremy Gibson's funeral visitation more than 30 days ago.