Travis County authorities are investigating the death of an 18-year-old whose body was found on a conveyor belt at a recycling center in Northeast Austin.
The teenager, identified by authorities as Silas Octavia Strimple, is the fourth person found dead at an Austin-area recycling center since 2015 and the third one in the past 12 months.
Authorities responded to the recycling center on Johnny Morris Road near U.S. 290 around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, after employees reported they found Strimple dead on the conveyor belt.
Officials with the Travis County sheriff’s office said an investigation into the cause of death and how Strimple’s body ended up at the recycling center is underway.
Evidence shows no signs of foul play, but the death is being considered suspicious because of where his body was found, authorities said.
Last year:Body found on conveyor at Creedmoor recycling plant
A similar incident was reported in December, when the body of 62-year-old Randall Shinault was found on a conveyor belt at a recycling center in Creedmoor.
Employees at a Texas Disposal Systems recycling center in the 3600 block of FM 1327 were sorting through materials on Dec. 3 around 9:45 a.m. when Shinault’s body was found on a conveyor belt.
Sheriff’s office investigators said Shinault was experiencing homelessness. Authorities had said evidence did not definitively indicate that Shinault was killed, but foul play was not ruled out.
Last March, the body of 31-year-old Collen LeBlanc also was found on a conveyor belt at the recycling center on Johnny Morris Road. An employee at the Balcones Resources plant reported the body.
An investigation did not point to foul play in LeBlanc’s case, authorities had said.
In April 2015, the body of 49-year-old Clarence Gerald Gardner Jr. was found at the Texas Disposal Systems recycling center in Creedmoor. His body was spotted on a conveyor belt by workers who were separating cardboard from other items that had been collected.
Mark Kenady, 56, pleaded guilty in Gardner’s death. Kenady and Gardner were both homeless.
Kenady told investigators that he hit Gardner over the head with a brick after a fight broke out between them and a woman, who was also homeless, in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood in South Austin.
Kenady told investigators that he stabbed Gardner twice after loading his body into a recycling bin.
Anyone with information about Strimple’s death or his whereabouts leading up to Wednesday are asked to call the Travis County sheriff’s office tip line at 512-854-1444.
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