The body of a man found Friday morning along a roadside in eastern Boyle County was that of a Richmond man, Kentucky State Police said.
Trooper Paul Blanton said authorities used fingerprints to identify Michael Dean Begley, Jr., 27, on Saturday afternoon and notified his mother, who also lives in Richmond, shortly afterward.
An preliminary autopsy conducted earlier Saturday determined Begley died from injuries he received during a physical assault, not as a result of being hit by a vehicle or being tossed from a moving car, Blanton said.
Detective Rodney Wren is conducting what Blanton labeled a “death investigation.” After talking with Begley’s mother, Wren was questioning people who might have knowledge about the case and was hoping to obtain more information later Saturday night about the circumstances leading up to Begley’s death, Blanton said.
Boyle County deputies responded to a report of a body discovered by a driver just off Taylor Road at 7:20 a.m. Friday. The man, dressed in blue jeans and a red hooded sweatshirt, was not carrying any identification and no one who gathered at the scene recognized him, police said.
