The death of a Utah teenager is proving to be a mystery to investigators who discovered his body early on Saturday morning.
The body of Nathan Tyler Haun, 17, from Spanish Fork was spotted by a driver around 5:30 a.m. lying in the middle of the road, on a lonely stretch of rural highway known as the Arrowhead Trail between Salem and Payson.
Police have said they’re about to make arrests in the case.
Dead: The body of Nathan Tyler Haun, 17, from Spanish Fork, Utah was found in the middle of a rural road in the early hours of Saturday morning
Seargent Spencer Cannon with the Utah County Sheriff’s Department said Haun’s body was badly bruised.
Detectives believe Haun may have fallen out of a fast moving car.
‘There was a significant amount of trauma that was very extensive from head to toe,’ Cannon said. ‘There was no chance of survival.’
Haun was at a house party on Friday night in Payson just hours before he died.
According to investigators, a group of teens who were at the party are staying quiet, possibly because there was underage drinking.
Cannon said the teenagers and their parents are not talking and have hired attorneys, which makes Haun’s death look suspicious.
‘They’re not only not cooperating with us, they’re being very uncooperative, so what we’re really not getting the detail we need from the people we think know what happened,’ he said.
Nathan’s father has come forward to say that he believes his son was killed on purpose.
Preston Haun told RadarOnline that he does not believe his son’s death was from a random hit-and-run accident and that he believes he knows who is responsible.
‘I honestly believe that he was run over by someone at the party,’ Preston told RadarOnline on Monday when reached via phone.
‘I believe he was run over on purpose. There were no skid marks. It was like he was hit and they kept on going.’
Preston said that the circumstances of his child’s death are suspicious. ‘Even if it was an accident, nothing matches up.’
He said that he has heard that his son was ‘talking to a girl and maybe there was an argument with people he didn’t know, or people he had only known for a few hours.’
Preston told Radar that he believes kids that know about Nathan’s death are not coming forward.
Word of Haun’s death is spreading quietly through the community. People who wished to remain anonymous brought flowers to the site where Haun died.
‘He was just always friendly,’ a woman said. ‘He was a good kid.’
Police say Nathan Haun got into an argument with another teenager over a girl at the party, but they have ruled out that teen’s involvement in Haun’s death.
They hope anyone who has information will have a change of heart and come forward.
Rumors have been rampant online, with one friend writing an accusatory note about Nathan’s death
‘How sick are you? To kill someone over something soooo stupid as that. You’re a low person. I hope you burn in hell,’ the person wrote.
‘It’s a horrible way to die, but yet to be abandoned by people who would supposedly have been loyal to him is difficult,’ Cannon added.
‘The family is having a hard time with that. In reality we’re not worried about kids having a couple of drinks. We’re worried about what happened to this poor kid.’
