HELENA-WEST HELENA -- Authorities found the body of a man in Long Lake just south of downtown Helena-West Helena on Monday, and authorities said they are investigating the death as a homicide.
Phillips County sheriff's deputies recovered the body near the north end of Long Lake about 9:45 a.m., said Phillips County Office of Emergency Management coordinator Michael Burchett. He said the body was male, but he could not determine the victim's race because the body appeared to have been in the water for some time.
Burchett said the man appeared to have died from blunt-force trauma to the head.
Burchett said authorities did not know if the body was that of Curtis Hairl, 25, a Helena-West Helena man reported missing on April 9. He said it is probably not Aaron Lane, an Osceola man who fell into the Mississippi River on April 8 near Osceola, because the Mississippi River does not run into Long Lake.
Officials sent the body to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for an autopsy.
State Desk on 04/22/2015