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Body found along I-95 in West Palm Beach; identified as a man from Orlando

Posted at 10:55 AM, Aug 03, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-04 18:33:12-04

UPDATE: The body of the man found along I-95 has been identified as Roger Baldwin, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. A family member said Baldwin was 49 and from Orlando. Investigators do not suspect foul play.

Baldwin's husband, Louis Reese contacted NewsChannel 5 and said his husband had been missing since July 18th. 

Reese said he learned his husband's car broke down a mile from I-95 and Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard where FHP said the body was found Thursday morning by a lawn maintenance worker. 

Reese said he and his husband had separated because of his drug use. He believes Baldwin was using drugs efore he ran out of gas on the road. 

When he and other friends and family had not heard from Baldwin, Reese filed a missing person's report.

He never thought his husband would be found dead.

"I just figured he wanted a break for a few weeks and he'd just show up on my doorstep," said Reese.

Reese said his husband was at a friend's house before he left and ran out of gas. He had been talking about getting naked.

FHP is still investigating the cause of death. 

EARLIER:

A body was found in bushes along the on ramp from Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard to SB I-95 Thursday morning, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

A group of maintenance workers discovered the man's naked body while doing lawn work along the on-ramp. 

The crew's supervisor David Koonce, from Knight Property Management, said at first they were not sure what they were looking at.

"First, they thought it was an animal," said Koonce.

Their eyes deceived them at first, but their noses did not.

"The smell was something, something I don't think I ever want to smell again," said Koonce. 

Koonce said the man was lodged underneath the trees and appeared to have been there for a while.

"The body was naked, the only thing it had on was socks," added Koonce. 

Florida Highway Patrol investigators say the death does not appear to be recent. Their mission to try to identify the man and figure out how long he was there. They are not ruling out foul play. 

Koonce said his workers were a surprised by the situation but continued to work throughout the day. He says they are used to finding all sorts of things on the highway, but never a corpse. 
 
"You can find guns, you can find money, cellphones, TVs, refrigerators, microwaves, anything you name you can find it out here," said Koonce. "Let's put it this way, that was the last thing I expected to see this morning." 
 
State troopers are also looking into reports of missing persons as part of the investigation.