High Point Police officers pulled a body from a creek near South Main Street and Greenview Terrace on Wednesday afternoon, launching a death investigation in a quiet southwest High Point neighborhood. Police have not released the identity of the person found, and they say no foul play is currently suspected in the death.
According to WXII 12, the High Point Police Department received a report of a person in a creek and responded at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Officers arriving at the scene found one person dead, and police have not released additional information about the circumstances surrounding the death. Local station FOX8 reported that officers actually arrived closer to 2 p.m. and secured the area with tape while noting no initial signs of foul play, a discrepancy in the timeline that has not been resolved between the two outlets' reporting.
The waterway running along South Main Street and Greenview Terrace is part of Richland Creek, an urban drainage basin that eventually feeds into the Deep River and the Randleman Reservoir drinking water supply, according to the Piedmont Triad Regional Council. The intersection sits within the student attendance zone for Fairview Elementary School, placing the discovery close to a residential and school-adjacent stretch of southwest High Point.
Why the Medical Examiner Has to Get Involved
Under North Carolina General Statutes § 130A-383, state law requires that any sudden, unexpected, unattended, or unnatural death be reported to a medical examiner for an official investigation into cause and manner of death, per the North Carolina General Assembly. That statute is why the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy in this case, even though police have not indicated they suspect a crime. The autopsy is expected to determine more about how the person died, though officials have not offered a timeline for results.
The physical examination will likely take place at the Autopsy Service at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, which serves as the designated regional forensic pathology center for 33 central and western North Carolina counties handling Guilford County cases. Under N.C. General Statute § 130A-385, updated by Session Law 2025-70 in late 2025, autopsy files, toxicology reports, and investigative notes tied to active death investigations are confidential and exempt from public release, according to the NCDHHS Division of Public Health. That means residents hoping for a quick answer on cause of death may be waiting a while, since findings from cases under investigation typically stay out of public view until the case is resolved.
Standard Protocol, Even Without Signs of a Crime
The High Point Police Department routinely assigns death investigations like this one to its Violent Crimes Unit to manage scene processing and forensic evidence collection, maintaining the same protocols regardless of whether foul play is initially suspected, per documentation from the City of High Point. That standard approach explains why officers taped off the creek area and held the scene even without any early indication of a struggle or crime.
This is not the first time High Point has dealt with a body discovered in a local waterway. In March 2024, police investigated a similar case after a body was found in a creek in the 1900 block of Brentwood Street, roughly two miles from the South Main Street location, as reported by WFMY News 2. Further back, in July 2016, Guilford County law enforcement investigated an unsolved homicide after a man was found face-up in a creek crossing near 1990 Fairview Street, according to Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers records.
A Creek Under Community Watch
The Richland Creek corridor near South Main Street has also been the focus of a multi-year revitalization push led by the Southwest Renewal Foundation, aimed at clearing invasive vegetation and improving public safety along the urban creek banks, as noted by the Post and Courier. That ongoing effort underscores how accessible — and how visible — this stretch of waterway has become to nearby residents, even as it continues to be the site of unsettling discoveries.
For now, the biggest questions remain unanswered: who the person found in the creek was, how they died, and how long they may have been in the water before being discovered. WXII 12 says it will provide updates as police release more information. Hoodline has previously covered other High Point Police Department death investigations this year, including a domestic call that turned deadly and a hit-and-run that killed a 5-year-old, reflecting a department that has faced a heavy caseload of violent and unattended death investigations in recent months.
