Body found in pond next to Broadway, 31st Street South

A body was found in a south Wichita pond Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

The discovery came at 2:40 p.m. in Go Lake, a private lake to the southeast of Broadway and 31st Street, a Sedgwick County emergency dispatcher said.

Two people were out fishing on the lake Tuesday and saw what they thought at first was “a large turtle,” Wichita police Sgt. Brian Sigman said. Once they determined it was a body, they called 911.

The body had been in the lake “for a while,” Sigman said, possibly for months. It was largely decomposed and appears to be a male, Sigman said.

Members of the Wichita police homicide unit were on the scene trying to determine whether the person had been reported missing, Sigman said.

“It’s too early to tell right now until the body goes to the coroners,” Sigman said.

Go Lake is “several hundred feet long by probably 150 feet wide,” Sigman said. The body was found near the northwest corner of the lake.

It is a fairly common destination for people who own trailers on the lake to go out fishing, he said.

Contributing: Stan Finger of The Eagle

This story was originally published March 24, 2015 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Body found in pond next to Broadway, 31st Street South."