Authorities are investigating a death after a man was found in a crashed vehicle on Sunday in Harvey County.
At 2:45 p.m., a property owner reported discovering a red 2011 Chevy Silverado on their land near mile marker 32, at the U.S. Highway 50 and Interstate 135 interchange. Deputies arrived to find the man deceased inside.
The Harvey County Sheriff’s Office requested assistance from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and the Kansas Highway Patrol’s Critical Highway Accident Response Team. Investigators believe the vehicle veered off the road and struck a tree.
The KBI reported that the vehicle was registered to 42-year-old Jonathan Clayton of Peabody, though positive identification is pending an autopsy.
Clayton, who served as Peabody’s interim city clerk, was reported missing on August 3. The Peabody Gazette-Bulletin noted that he was linked to an investigation regarding the loss of COVID-19 funds from the Peabody Main Street program.
The state had ordered the program to return $740,000 of a $1.5 million grant due to missing “required financial and project reports,” which Clayton was responsible for submitting, according to the newspaper.
