Man Found Dead At Bonnaroo Campsite

Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves has reported that the body found at the Bonnaroo campsite Tuesday has been identified as a 26-year-old Fort Payne, Ala., man, according to a report by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Matthew Lands has now been identified through fingerprint analysis Thursday.

Sheriff Graves told the Shelbyville Times-Gazette the body was found Tuesday afternoon in a one-man tent, close to a black pickup truck belonging to his father. It has been reported by police that Lands was last seen alive on Monday, June 15th, at 3 PM CT.

“We don’t know if he was a worker or someone who just lingered,” said Graves.

Matthew Lands’ body is still being examined at the Tennessee Medical Examiner’s Office in Nashville. Early autopsy reports did not verify a cause of death, the sheriff said.

Graves noted that there were no signs of foul play and suggested the cause of death was due to drugs, or a medical problem, as the body showed no signs of trauma.

The toxicology report could take one to two weeks.

There were no deaths reported at last year’s Bonnaroo, and arrests were down for the just concluded, four-day, multi-stage camping festival held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn.

“Arrests were down about a third, but summonses were up 60 percent,” Sheriff Graves told the paper. “We found a lot of drugs, but it was smaller amounts. We did make several large drug amount arrests and seizures.”

It was ‘business as usual’ according to Graves.

While it’s still unclear the cause of death, questions will be asked of just what happened after Lands was last seen on Monday, June 15th, at 3 PM.  With no report of trauma an overdose seems likely, or a medical condition, which was mentioned. As of this writing there have been no reports of witnesses, or anyone who might have been with Lands while on the campsite.

Lands’ passing this week marks the seventh Bonnaroo-related death in the eight years, according to the Shelbyville Times-Gazette.

What do you think happened? Was it drugs, violence, or something else? And how did no one notice?