Body found on train tracks: Coroner awaiting fingerprint match to ID man

The Butler County Coroner’s Office is still working to identify a man found dead earlier this month along the railroad tracks in Middletown.

The Butler County Coroner’s Office is still working to identify a man found dead earlier this month along the railroad tracks in Middletown.

Officials are awaiting the results of a fingerprint search to help them identify a man found dead Nov. 16 on railroad tracks behind Vannest Avenue in Middletown, according to Martin Schneider, office administrator for the Butler County coroner.

FIRST REPORT: Dead body found on railroad tracks in Middletown

A man was found dead at about 4:20 p.m. behind the 3500 block of Vannest Avenue, according to Middletown police. Identification found on the man returned to a Trenton resident.

But when police officers went to the residence of the Trenton man, they found him, “alive and well,” according to a police report obtained by the Journal-News.

Fingerprints of the deceased have been sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to make identification, Schneider told the Journal-News. With the holiday, the process is taking longer than usual, he said.

The man does not match any missing persons reports and no one has come forward looking for him, Schneider said.

An autopsy is being performed by the coroner’s office, but there is no indication of trauma. Police said it does not appear the man was hit by a train and the circumstances of his death are under investigation.

The man was dressed for the cold weather and his arm was out as if he might have “attempted to catch himself while falling,” according to the police report.

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