The Isabella County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed a body found Thursday behind Sam’s Club was Matthew Owen Poole.

“(We) had used investigative efforts to try and locate Mr. Poole,” said Department of Public Safety Director Anthony B. Gomez-Mesquita.

The winter weather hampered efforts to locate Poole’s body, Gomez-Mesquita said, and once temperatures increased, snow melted, revealing the body and a green jacket Poole was wearing.

Police said the body did not have any visible trauma, but an investigation is ongoing.

Poole, 22, of Wolverine Lake, was last seen Feb. 5 at 10:52 p.m. walking southbound near US-127. He was in Mount Pleasant that weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

The friends had been drinking before leaving for O’Kelly’s Sports Bar & Grille, 2000 S. Mission St., where Poole and a friend were not allowed to enter the bar because they appeared to be heavily intoxicated. Poole left the location without informing his friends. He was last seen that night.

Poole was reported missing nearly 24 hours after witnesses saw him off of US-127.

At approximately 7:24 p.m. Thursday Central Dispatch received a call from an unidentified individual who said there was a body behind Sam’s Club, Gomez-Mesquita said.

“At this point, (we) have not identified the caller,” Sheriff Leo Mioduszewksi said. “Until we have results, (we) are going to treat it as a suspicious death.”

An autopsy will be performed on Poole’s body later this afternoon. Results may take up to a few months if the cause of death cannot be determined, pending toxicology reports, Mioduszewksi said.

Check cm-life.com for continued updates as the story develops

E-mail the author: Amelia Eramya