Decomposed human remains were discovered along the shoreline of Bde Maka Ska near West 36th Street and East Bde Maka Ska Parkway on Sunday, prompting a large emergency response and an active investigation into who the person was and how they died. Hennepin County Sheriff's Office Water Patrol deputies were dispatched to the scene at 11:40 a.m. after the body was found along the shore, and authorities have not identified the person or determined a cause of death.
According to Bring Me The News, authorities taped off a section of the shoreline to keep the public away while investigators worked the scene. The Minneapolis Parks Police Department described the remains as being in a severe state of decomposition, per WCCO, a detail that has complicated efforts to determine basic facts about who was found and when they died.
The response drew personnel from multiple agencies. As reported by KARE 11, the scene brought out Hennepin County Water Patrol deputies, Minneapolis Park Police, Minneapolis Police Department officers, and the Minneapolis Fire Department. Members of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office Dive Team were also deployed to conduct an underwater and shoreline search of the lake for additional physical evidence, the station notes.
A Lake Built for Crowds, Not Crime Scenes
Bde Maka Ska is the largest and deepest lake in Minneapolis, spanning more than 400 acres with a maximum depth of nearly 90 feet, and it's encircled by 3.1 miles of heavily used pedestrian and bicycle trails, according to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. The shoreline near West 36th Street sits close to Thomas Beach and other major pedestrian loop access points, placing the investigation in one of the city's most trafficked recreational corridors.
Under local interagency agreements, the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office Water Patrol holds primary jurisdiction over water-based recoveries and dive operations in Minneapolis lakes, while surrounding shorelines and parkways fall to the Minneapolis Park Police Department and Minneapolis Police Department, per a federal report archived by the FCC. That division of labor explains why county deputies led the dive search while city park officers managed the taped-off shoreline.
Identification Could Take Time
Because the remains were severely decomposed, immediate visual identification wasn't possible, and authorities say they do not yet know the person's identity or cause of death. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office has said identifying severely decomposed remains often requires forensic procedures such as mobile digital fingerprint scanning, forensic anthropology, or dental comparisons, all of which can prolong the process.
The discovery came less than 24 hours after a separate, unrelated death investigation began nearby. On Saturday, Minneapolis Park Police opened a death investigation after a body was found in a wooded area near East River Parkway and Oak Street close to the University of Minnesota campus, according to MinneapoliMedia. Police have indicated there is no evidence linking the two cases.
The weekend's discoveries follow a summer of water-related death investigations in the city's park system. On July 19, Minneapolis Park Police responded to a body found floating in the Mississippi River just south of the Stone Arch Bridge, according to incident summaries kept by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
Bde Maka Ska's Recent History of Underwater Finds
This isn't the first time dive teams have turned up unexpected finds beneath the lake's surface. In April, a search diver retrieved between 16 and 18 handguns from the bottom of Bde Maka Ska, a discovery Hoodline previously reported. The lake has also been the focus of ongoing public safety measures on land, after the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board extended nighttime no-parking hours along Bde Maka Ska Parkway last year to curb late-night disturbances.
For now, investigators say the case remains open, with the person's identity, age, gender, and cause of death all unconfirmed pending the medical examiner's findings. Authorities have not categorized the death as accidental or suspicious, leaving the central questions of who was found and how they died unresolved as forensic work continues.
