The Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of an unidentified man whose body was found late Thursday evening south of Cortez near the sewer plant.

According to sheriff’s Detective Lt. Kalvin Boggs, the body was lying between two rocks just off of a dirt road and was discovered by residents of the nearby Happy Valley Trailer Park.

"It was off the road far enough that you would have to be looking for something in that area to be able to see it as you were driving by," Boggs said.

Authorities do not know who the man was, how he died or how long the body had been out there. Boggs said the decomposed state of the body made it very difficult to determine even the ethnicity of the man.

Additionally, the body does not seem to be that of any recently reported missing person in the area.

"Every one (missing-persons report) that we have received in the last year we’ve already ruled out."

Boggs said officials won’t know whether foul play was involved in the man’s death until after an autopsy has been performed.

The body was transported Friday to Grand Junction, where the autopsy will be performed today.

"Any kind of death like this that the cause is unknown, we treat as a homicide," Boggs said. "All deaths are treated as homicides until determined otherwise."