Mystery surrounds body in Rio Puerco

Gallup Police Department officials and an official with the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator work the scene where the body of a man was found under the Hershey Miyamura Overpass near the train tracks on Saturday morning. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Leslie Wood
Staff writer

GALLUP — A 25-year-old Indiana man was found dead in the Rio Puerco west of the Miyamura Overpass Saturday.

The man was identified as Arya Lahgaie, Deputy Chief John Allen of the Gallup Police Department, said.

A passer-by discovered Lahgaie’s lifeless body in the Rio Puerco at about 8:30 a.m. and notified police. Authorities suspect he’d been dead for nearly a day’s time before his body was discovered.

Allen said Laghaie traveled to Gallup from Indiana on Dec. 19 to work at the local Baha’i church. He was scheduled to leave Gallup Thursday, but missed the train.

He was last seen by friends Thursday, Allen said.

Authorities suspect Laghaie fell from the overpass in either an intentional or unintentional manner or was struck by a vehicle that forced him over the guardrail.

Allen said it does not appear that alcohol was involved in the matter.

Laghaie’s body was taken to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Albuquerque to undergo an autopsy to determine his cause of death.

Preliminary results are expected within days.