Officers with care package find homeless man dead

UPDATE --- Acccording to IISP Sgt. Joe Watts, the deceased victim was identified as 59-year-old Ralph Malone, of Terre Haute.
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It was a warm gesture by concerned police, but it came a little too late for a Terre Haute man this chilly December morning -- just a few days before Christmas.

Officers found the intended recipient of  some items they were attempting to drop off --- to make the homeless man's situation a litte more bearable --- dead when they stopped by the camp in the wooded area the man had been known to inhabit lately,  Indiana State Police Sgt. Joe Watts said.

"Trooper B.J. Patterson and Vigo County Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Palmer went to the encampment to deliver winter survival clothing and shelter items to the man they had known was living in the squalid make-shift shelter of his own choosing for approximately one and one-half years. As the officers arrived at the location, they could not make verbal contact with the man and opened up the shelter, only to find him deceased,"Watts explained, adding that investigators believe he had died a few days ago.

The joint investigation is continuing after the middle-aged homeless man was found dead at his makeshift camp on the city's east side this morning.

Watts had reported the discovery of the body far back in the woods early this afternoon. More information is pending autopsy results. It is estimated that the deceased male was about 59-years-old. 

​Indiana State Police detectives from the Putnamville Post together with Terre Haute Police Department Criminal Investigation Division are investigating the death of the  homeless man who had been known to inhabit a wooded area northwest of the Heritage Trail and Apartments, just off Fruitridge Avenue.

Terre Haute Fire Department reportedly used an all-terrain vehicle to transport the deceased the nearly 725 feet to the roadway.

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