Burning Man, the annual desert festival centered on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance," is usually good fodder for jokes, especially when its "orgy dome" is destroyed by wind. But this is serious. A man was found dead "in a pool of blood" Saturday night around 9:14 p.m., just as the giant wooden man that gives the event its name was beginning to burn, the New York Times reports.<!-more-->
Burning Man takes place in Black Rock City, a pop-up town in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, about 120 miles northeast of Reno. It's been going since Sunday, Aug. 24 and will wrap up today. Sheriff Jerry Allen of the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office told the Times a homicide investigation is underway, with several people near the site of the body interviewed. The forensic science division of the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office and rangers from the federal Bureau of Land Management have also been called in to assist.
Burning Man's organizers issued the following statement:
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of a single white adult male that occurred the night of Saturday, August 30 in Black Rock City. Burning Man is cooperating with law enforcement. The investigation is ongoing and the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office will be the primary source of further information. If you are in Black Rock City, do not interfere with law enforcement activity.
In other Burning Man news, a woman who didn't know she was pregnant and showed "no signs" of pregnancy gave birth at the fest Wednesday, Peggy Olsen style.
