TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - A dead man was found in an improvised grave near a busy road Thursday night. Now Pima Sheriff's deputies are working a homicide case.
They already have one suspect in custody, a homeless man named Daniel Lindquist.
He was arrested for second degree murder and booked into the Pima County Jail Friday on a $250,000 bond.
Sheriff's deputies found the body just a few feet off Oracle road about a half mile north of River Road.
Even with a suspect in custody deputies say they are still looking for clues in the case.
The Tucson Police Department was the first to be notified of the possibility of a body. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos says a witness went to TPD to tell them about a body in the desert, they referred it to the sheriff's department when they determined it was in the Sheriff’s jurisdiction. Deputies found the man's body around 5 p.m. on Thursday.
They determined it had been on this spot for two, maybe three weeks.
Sheriff Chris Nanos says the dead man and the man charged with killing him were homeless.
"We believe there is just all of those things that you associate with the homeless issue: mental illness, homelessness, substance abuse; all of it comes together."
The improvised grave is close to Oracle Road, a very busy, north-south road here but there's still the kind of seclusion a homeless person might want for his camp. There's steep terrain there and an area where the person could set up to live.
A hollow there was where detectives found the dead man buried under about three feet of debris.
Deputies arrested 41 year old Daniel Lindquist just a few hours after finding the body. He served four years in prison for aggravated assault and DUI. He had been out of prison for less than two months.
The sheriff says Lindquist already had the injuries apparent in his booking photo before deputies arrested him---apparently from a fight before Lindquist's arrest.
Now investigators are looking for anyone else who may have known Daniel Lindquist, or the victim, and who may be able to offer more detail on the killing.
