In the winter of 2008, the quiet community of Draper, Utah, became the backdrop to a lingering mystery. On February 23rd, a group of hikers navigating a snowy, water-filled gully made a grim discovery: the body of 39-year-old Eric Moses Timberlake, an African American man. The setting was unusual; the gully was located near the South Mountain Golf Course, an area that would have been largely inaccessible due to heavy snowfall in the preceding weeks.
Investigators were immediately faced with a number of perplexing questions, the most prominent being what had brought Timberlake to this remote spot.
The last confirmed sighting of Timberlake had been on February 8th, leaving a significant gap in the timeline of his final days. An autopsy revealed no immediate signs of violence or trauma, deepening the enigma of his death. However, there were unexplained marks on his back, leaving authorities to wonder if his body had been dragged to the location or had tumbled through the snowpack. His last known residence was an apartment in Salt Lake City, and he had no known connections or prior history with the Draper area, making his presence there all the more baffling to investigators.
Ultimately, toxicology reports determined that Eric Moses Timberlake had died from a methamphetamine overdose. Despite this finding, the peculiar circumstances surrounding the discovery of his body led law enforcement to believe there was more to the story. The possibility that his body was dumped in the gully after his death remained a strong consideration for detectives. The case was treated as a suspicious death, and the Draper Police Department sought information from the public regarding Timberlake's activities leading up to his disappearance. To this day, no arrests have been made, and no suspects have been publicly identified in connection with his death, leaving his family with unanswered questions.
