Mr. Ballin

Officially, he was there to check on some water lines.

But he was also, you know, taking his time and enjoying himself.

I mean, this area was beautiful.

It was high up in the mountains and very remote and peaceful.

So this guy was genuinely shocked when he reached the top of the trail and saw he was not alone.

There was a woman up there.

But at first, the way his brain processed what he was seeing is he saw this woman who was lying on the ground and she appeared to be nude or partially nude.

And he thought, oh, she's sunbathing.

Like, that's what she's doing up here.

But then he's like, it's March.

It's cold.

And she's face down and she's definitely totally naked.

And then he took a few more steps forward and his brain kind of processed what he was seeing, at which point he just gasped, turned around and ran back to his car to go alert the police.

Within the hour, Captain Pete Hayward, with the Salt Lake City Sheriff's Office, drove his cruiser along a remote access road that led to Big Cottonwood Canyon.

So Hayward normally loved being in nature.

All he really did in his spare time was hunt and fish.

But right now, the scenery and remote location were actually kind of an inconvenience, because he needed to get to his destination quickly, and that was just very hard to do out here.

Hayward had just gotten a call about a woman who'd been found dead in the canyon by a worker for a utility company.

And while a few responders were actually already there securing the scene, Hayward knew they wouldn't be able to really do anything until he got there.

Because when he worked a murder case, every single detail had to go through him.