Probe after body is found at beauty spot
POLICE are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a person whose body was found in the water at Marsden’s Butterley Reservoir ysterday morning.
Police divers recovered the body from the popular moorland beauty spot on Friday afternoon as detectives and crime scene officers waited at the water’s edge.
The body was removed from the Yorkshire Water-owned reservoir at around 3pm by officers working with the Marine and Underwater Search Unit.
Crime scene officers took photographs at the scene before the body was carried along a path to a private ambulance parked on a path which runs alongside the Marsden reservoir.
Dog walkers were prevented from accessing the path which runs next to the dam wall as police officers carried out their inquiries at their inquiries at the scene.
Yorkshire Water staff were also at the scene, assisting the divers with information about underwater hazards. A lone ambulance man attended the scene shortly after the body was taken from the water.
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said their enquiries were at an early stage.
“Police were called at 11.11am on Friday to Butterley Reservoir to reports of a body in the water.
“Enquiries are in their early stage and are ongoing to establish the circumstances.”
Two armed officers who attended the scene are believed to have assisted colleagues in carrying the body from the side of the reservoir to a waiting private ambulance.
Police officers left the scene at around 4.15pm.
The force has not disclosed whether the body was that of a man or a woman.
Butterley Reservoir is a small area of water owned by Yorkshire Water and is a popular spot for dog walkers, ramblers and cyclists.
The reservoir was in the headlines in recent years as campaigners fought a three-year battle to preserve the historic spillway.
The Grade II listed spillway was eventually renovated at a cost of £5m.