# Did I see a dead body on the side of the road? Mason City IA
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 14, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893 "2011-11-14T15:43:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/1 "2011-11-14T15:43:58Z")
Is there anyway to find out?
I was driving south on hwy 35 from Minneapolis. I had just watched the Packers/Vikings game and was driving home the following Monday - so it would oct 24th. Based on the time I left, it would have been about 9:00 AM
Anyway, after I had gotten into IA - right around Mason City - I saw a person sitting on the shoulder of the road, leaned up against a mile marker. And the person had something over his/her head. Looked like a coat, but maybe it was a bag.
I was just kinda stunned by the sight and didn’t know how to react. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a blue pickup pull over right past where the person was sitting, so I assume that the pickup driver checked on the individual or at least called the authorities.
I really should have called someone as well, but I was gone all weekend without my cell phone charger and my phone was dead. Had I not seen someone pull over at the exact spot, I would have found a way to notify the authorities.
Anyway, it’s been bugging me. Is there anyway to find out what was going on there? A police report? I tried google, but with no luck.
I’m hoping it was just someone waiting for a ride, but fear something more sinister was going on. Any ideas on how to figure this one out?
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/2 "2011-11-14T16:58:18Z")
Here is where to find the daily incident log for the Mason CIty local police department. It doesn’t look like it goes back to Oct 24th, but the next time something like that happens you can check out the log to see if there was a police response. Most areas now have something like this if you can find it.
[http://www.municipaldocs.com/mcpd/incidentsummarymediareport.html](http://www.municipaldocs.com/mcpd/incidentsummarymediareport.html)
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/3 "2011-11-14T17:23:08Z")
I’d be curious too!
The Highway Patrol might have investigated. There are incident reports on their website but they only go back 15 days. The phone number for the district office in Mason City is (641) 424-3625. Maybe someone would tell you over the phone.
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### Author:  [@velvetjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velvetjones)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/4 "2011-11-14T17:48:40Z")
Something similar happened to me a few years ago. I was driving north on I-95 in FL on my way to work in a spot where there isn’t any development, just woods on both sides of the road. I spotted somebody lying at the edge of the tree line faced away from the road. No way to tell if he/she was dead or just sleeping. I called the Florida Highway Patrol when I got to work, told them the nearest mile marker and they indicated that they already knew about the guy so I guess he was just sleeping there.
Still, it was pretty creepy thinking about that the rest of the way to work.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/5 "2011-11-14T18:43:21Z")
I once saw a dead body on both sides of the road. The _same_ dead body.
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### Author:  [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/6 "2011-11-15T13:41:53Z")
Curses! If I had checked a few weeks ago I may have found something. Thanks for the links, I’ll have to keep that in mind if something like this happens again.
So, wouldn’t those police transcripts be archived somewhere?
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/7 "2011-11-15T14:42:47Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#):
>
> I once saw a dead body on both sides of the road. The _same_ dead body.
Was it the body of a chicken? Cause I hear they cross the road a lot.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/8 "2011-11-15T15:33:04Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#):
>
> I once saw a dead body on both sides of the road. The _same_ dead body.
was it mystical, many dimensional physics or just travel in the other direction?
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### Author:  [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/9 "2011-11-15T15:41:15Z")
Or a magician’s “saw a person in half” trick gone horribly awry.
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### Author:  [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/10 "2011-11-15T16:23:34Z")
> [@ugly ripe tomato](#):
>
> Or a magician’s “saw a person in half” trick gone horribly awry.
Or a “rip a person in half” trick performed by a speeding semi?
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/11 "2011-11-15T16:35:32Z")
> [@brewha](#):
>
> Curses! If I had checked a few weeks ago I may have found something. Thanks for the links, I’ll have to keep that in mind if something like this happens again.
>
> So, wouldn’t those police transcripts be archived somewhere?
The Highway Patrol website has a note that they’re researching a way to archive the reports, so it looks like for now anyway, you’d have to call them.
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### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/12 "2011-11-15T19:37:38Z")
I saw a body on the side of the road (with a motorcycle laying in the shoulder 500 feet further down the road) and I posted the same question here. The Dopers were able to locate a local news report indicating that yes, indeed, the accident had been a fatality.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/13 "2011-11-15T21:22:57Z")
> [@Spiff](#):
>
> Or a “rip a person in half” trick performed by a speeding semi?
Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner.
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### Author:  [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/14 "2011-11-16T18:00:51Z")
> [@OpalCat](#):
>
> I saw a body on the side of the road (with a motorcycle laying in the shoulder 500 feet further down the road) and I posted the same question here. The Dopers were able to locate a local news report indicating that yes, indeed, the accident had been a fatality.
The odd thing about it was that there was no vehicle. And the guy\* seated was leaned up against a mile marker with something over his head. So, either he sat down there or was positioned there. It was just odd.
\*no idea if it was actually man or woman.
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### Author:  [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/15 "2011-11-16T19:03:46Z")
I know we don’t see a lot of them these days, but could it have simply been a hitchhiker taking a break before resuming his hitching? This was a along Interstate 35 I presume?
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### Author:  [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-see-a-dead-body-on-the-side-of-the-road-mason-city-ia/602893/16 "2011-11-16T19:54:09Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#):
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner.
Yikes. I think seeing something like that would traumatize me pretty badly–and this from a person who routinely used to look at ghoulish pictures on sites like [Rotten.com](http://Rotten.com). Seeing it in person, though…\