23-year-old Des Moines man identified as body found near former Dico site

Des Moines police identified a 23-year-old man Tuesday as the body found in what the department's spokesman called "one of the most complex and complicated" crime scenes he'd seen.

Police found the body of Marshal Aaron Terrell Johnson of Des Moines in the wooded area south of Southwest 16th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway near the former Dico site on Wednesday.

A Marshal Johnson of the same age was listed as a missing person on the Iowa Department of Public Safety's website last week. Johnson was listed Oct. 3.

Marshal Johnson, 23, shown in an undated photo. His family is lamenting the loss of Johnson, who grew up in the Des Moines metro and was a star athlete at Urbandale High School.

Johnson was a star track and football athlete at Urbandale High School before attending Central College for a semester, his parents said. The two declined to comment further Tuesday.

► Previously:Des Moines police investigating human remains found downtown

Police are treating the death as a homicide.

Des Moines police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek on Tuesday afternoon confirmed the body was Johnson. The body was identified through "extensive forensic examination," Parizek said in a news release.

The Dico Inc. property, a closed manufacturing plant on the southwest side of downtown, has sat empty for two decades. The 38-acre property site, which is on city property on the east bank of the Raccoon River, is geographically isolated and has attracted squatters over the years.

"The people who camp there change often," Parizek said last week, although he was unsure then when the camp had last been cleared.

Some city officials have pushed to revitalize the Dico site. The site is contaminated by chemical leaks and carcinogenic building materials and is therefore listed as one of the nation's most toxic waste sites.

A different homeless camp about half a mile west was the site last month where a Des Moines police officer shot and injured a wanted man who had threatened police with a knife.

Danielle Gehr is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. She can be reached by email at dgehr@dmreg.com, by phone at 515-284-8367 or on Twitter at @Dani_Gehr.

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