You've been on a dead body. No, you
haven't been on dead body. No, this is
the first one. So, you got to help.
No. Really? Yes. I feel like you're
pranking me. I'm not. Take this. All
right. What do you want me to do?
Shield your face. Shield. It looks like
it's mostly gas. Go ahead and just pop
all the blisters.
You guys suck that. We had to do that.
In Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 8th,
2024, a routine police response to a
deceased homeless male takes a
disturbing and vile turn. What begins as
a teaching moment for a new recruit
quickly escalates, placing multiple
officers under investigation for
misconduct and igniting public outrage.
You sure you're all right? Yeah, I'm
fine. You mean you got to pop some
bubbles? The following report is based
on official police records, and most of
the following footage has never been
seen before until now. Just after 12:30
p.m., field training officer Mark Keep
and his trainee, recruit Dakota Smiggle,
join two other officers who have arrived
on scene to confirm reports of a
deceased adult male. I don't see
anything
[Music]
like his tent's
not I mean his tent's kind of like Yeah,
but it's like he fell into it kind of
thing. Like he fell over that direction.
There's not blood all over. There is
blood on his face though. Yeah. I mean,
you can see
there's no splatter inside the tent, is
there? Oh, yeah. It does have a bloody
nose. There's that smell.
Okay. I don't know. So, I mean, there
might maybe it might not be a bad idea
to have homicide come. Okay. So,
all right. Well, let's get your tape.
Recruit Smiggle secures the scene with
tape as Officer Peterson catches her
colleagues up to speed on the situation.
Is this his face? No. No. But he's got
um not a lot of
more than what I miss. Officer Keep and
Recruit Smiggle decide to head back to
the tent to search the man's belongings
for identification. As they leave,
nearby officers are overheard discussing
the new recruit.
That's what we call
him. Smeiggle. We call him
the He's
his father-in-law is Captain Smog. Oh,
really? Yeah. So, we give him so much.
So, not mess with the body. Just trying
to get in his pockets or bags.
We don't touch the bags. Don't touch
body. Keep bottle alone. Bags. Officer
keeps explicit instructions to leave the
body alone. However, won't stand for
long. Among the man's belongings, they
find two phone charges, one phone,
hygiene items, a plastic pen tube that
Recruit Smiggle identifies as
paraphernelia, and cash. No
identification is found. Officer
Mullenex, another field training
officer, arrives at the scene and
gathers additional details from the
witness who first reported the body to
the police. What's up, boss? What's
happening? How's it going? Um, I'm all
right. So, uh, I was walking through
and, uh, some some Polynesian dude waved
me down over here. He was like halfway
walking from that wall over here. Yeah.
Yeah. He gets over here. He's like, "I
think I found a dead body." He's not
moving. I get over there and meet him.
I'm like, "Dude, obviously it's dead
body. Why have you called the cops?" You
know what I mean? He's obviously dead.
Um, and then I called you guys, stayed
on the phone until the dude kind of
grabbed the phone and left. And uh,
yeah. Yeah. Okay. I didn't touch nothing
over there. I got you. He that speaker
that was there. You see that that that
box? Yeah, I saw that box. Yeah, that
was that that dude stole that. He took
it. Yeah, it's real nice. That's pretty
move, dude. That's a dead person, man.
It's a dead person. That's No, I'm cool.
Sad. Well, I appreciate you not leaving
and actually calling because of course.
As their conversation continues in the
shade, their discussion inadvertently
foreshadows a later incident that will
soon bring multiple officers under
intense scrutiny.
Bull. Oh, yeah. I agree. Crazy, bro. I
agree. It's pretty uh It's low. It's
real low. Real low, man.
Yeah. And also, I mean, you start taking
stuff. Unfortunately, he started taking
stuff from people who are deceased.
You're starting to walk a line between
desecration of a body. Exactly. Which is
is not a pretty charge. It's a pretty
charge, but also, you know, it's kind of
just a to be quite honest and fair, it's
a piece of thing to do. It is. It is,
dude. So, you don't do that. You don't
do that. The situation takes a sudden
turn when a bystander alerts police to a
nearby building. After explaining there
are multiple people inside, the police
head over to investigate. You have the
code.
There's stairs to the left. Okay. Then
there goes back into the front there.
Hey, Salt Lake City Police.
Come on out. Who's up there?
I heard him. It's up top there. You can
smell the campfire. Yeah, I can too.
Salt Lake City
Police, we heard you up there. Come on
down. So, for the most part, we all kind
of stop clearing this building cuz of
how bad it has been. But So, are
we just going to barricade the door or
what? Or are we going to have to look?
It's a good question.
So
because it's if it were just simply a
trespass, I wouldn't ask my guys to go
in. Yeah, I know. And then the only
thing is so homicide's not coming out
for this. They're not. No, they're not.
They said they won't. So that's kind of
where I'm
like push the issue and go in. Yeah, cuz
Yeah. I mean, I guess it's up to guys
with stripes, but if it was me, I'd
barricade the door. Now he's saying if
we could call in and see if anyone knows
this guy, no one's in trouble. Well, we
can't get anybody to answer. So, but we
can do it again.
Hey, is there anybody up there that
knows this guy in the tent?
Your buddy in the tent. Does anybody
know his name? With no response, the
officer closes the door. I feel like
portable welder in one day and I'm just
man, you know what I mean? Yeah,
exactly. As they wait for the medical
examiner to arrive, officer Mullenex
approaches officer Smiggle and Keep and
delivers a shocking warning. Just be
wary when they move him. He might
explode. Mhm. Good chance he will.
You've been on a dead body? No, you
haven't been on. No, this the first one.
So, you got to help move.
No. Really? Yes. You helped move them?
Yes.
Okay. You didn't think that was a thing?
No, I didn't know that. That's That's
the job. I've moved I've moved plenty of
No, I didn't know that. Yep. Okay.
Meanwhile, while standing guard near the
closed building door, several officers
share their perspectives on the
homeless. I don't think any of us would
live the same way that the people here
live when they're homeless. We'd
probably have a tent and a backpack and
like be out of sight, out of mind. Yeah.
You know what I mean? Keep our stuff
consolidated. There'd be a reason we
were homeless, though. Like, not like
these guys where they're all dopers and
Yeah. Addicted devices. Yeah. I mean, a
lot of it comes down to it.
And yeah, you can give them a diagnosis
to explain him. Diagnosis is correct,
but in layman's terms,
that's why they can't stay house. Trying
an alternate strategy to identify the
man, the officers take note of his
various tattoos. They cross reference
them with their criminal database, but
are unable to find a match. A sergeant
contacts homicide and confirms they're
not coming to the scene. There is
tattoos. Yeah. Not really anything
suspicious. Yeah. Yeah. At least not
yet. So you pick him up and there's a
knife in his back, right? Roll him over.
You're like, "Oh, that's a gunshot
hole." Yeah.
Right. That's Yeah. Unless there's a
knife sticking out of him. It's just
kind of lands in his spine. When the
medical examiner finally arrives, they
quickly catch her up to speed. As she
examines the body, officers exchange
remarks. Put a lot on the dirt.
Break the seal. It's awesome.
You know how when you take your vest off
at the end of that, that's breaking the
seal. 1,000 times worse.
When that happens, you get
Take a big
or just embrace the fire.
You know what? If you do that, if you
take a breath, I'll try. According to
official documents, scoring a five is a
reference to recruit Smiggle's daily
observation report. So, what do they do
to break the seal on him? Moving. The
moving. Okay. The movement is moving.
No, they drop those over.
Slice them open
here. He smells pretty bad.
Kind of smells a little bit like lying
fish or something. Yeah, smell bite for
him. It's a different It's a different
smell and it's greasy and it'll stick in
your nose. You got a trim. Exactly.
I'm serious. It does. Yeah. It'll just
stay. Just sticks to it. It's It It's
interesting how different it is.
Why do you think that is like just
because people are it's supposed to
smell like black so that we don't burn
our candles.
As the medical examiner retrieves a
gurnie with the help of two contractors,
field training officer Mullenex joins
the group. His next instruction to
recruit Smiggle sets in motion a
horrifying chain of events. Hey Bon, go
help. I feel like you're pranking me.
I'm not. I've dead body.
help.
Why are you smirking like that? Cuz it's
just funny that you think it's a joke,
but I
didn't. So, do you mind if we just do
like popping? Yeah. Go ahead. Do you
guys need any help lifting him or You
want to help? I'm just They're ask
They're telling me I think they're
pranking me.
Yeah. So, yeah. May not want to help,
but we're going to allow him to help.
There you go. You're allowing me to
help. All right. Take this. All right.
What do you want me to do? Recruit
Smiggle is handed a box cutter by a
contractor working with the medical
examiner's office and his fellow officer
stand by as he does the unthinkable.
Shield your face. Shield. It looks like
it's mostly gas. Go ahead and just pop
all the blisters right there. Yes, sir.
Anything inflated? Yeah, just poke it.
It's gas. Yeah.
All right. Yeah. Aaron, do you want to
see? Uh, hey, baby. Yeah. One might just
let me What's up? You can drive.
Okay, here you go.
You guys suck. That we had to do that.
That's okay. I legitimately moved my
first dead body. Really? I don't want
him to stink, though. Sitting there. He
comes with me.
He's drying out.
Yeah, he's drying out.
You smell it now? It's really bad now.
Yeah.
I'm surprised there was no uh
liquid. I was too. It was gas. As the
medical examiner moves the body to the
gurnie, officers Peterson and Kee share
their observations. Isn't it weird that
his clothes probably fit him at one
point? Yeah, at at some point he does
probably. And you know, you know, like
the holy folks up. Moments later,
training officers Kee and Mullenex check
in on recruit Smiggle. You okay? Yeah,
I'm throw up. No, no, it's fine. All
right. Just make sure to have you cut
his his arm so his clothes leak. It was
gas. Got the blisters. Yeah. Gas
blistering. He wouldn't go touch the
box. Like help move
because they started giving me about it.
They're like, "Oh, yeah. So, you're
new." Yeah.
So, the reason I keep asking if you're
okay is the gut check, right? Like cuz
there's a lot of recruits quit after
they deal with bodies. It's fine. You
sure you're all right? Yeah, I'm fine.
You mean you got to pop some bubbles?
Yeah, it was kind of interesting, you
know. So, you're not not going to out?
I'm good. It's okay if you do. I'm fine.
He's He's being genuine with us. No, I
know. All right. Just want to make sure
you're all right. I don't want you to
pass out while we're driving or
something. Get lightheaded. You feel
good? Yeah. Okay. You will have to
leave. Okay. Yeah. At the end of the
day, any and all mention of the box
cutter and the popping of blisters on
the male's body is left entirely out of
their official reports. Fingerprints
later identified the man as 47year-old
Jason Herald Lloyd and his family was
notified of his passing. 4 days after
his body was discovered, two
unidentified officers approached a
police sergeant who shared their
recruits informed them of possible
misconduct. Launching an internal
investigation by the internal affairs
unit, they examined the behavior
conducted by several officers on scene.
Training officer Paul Mullenex, who told
recruit Smiggle to help move the body,
was found in violation of four
department policies. The report
describes his behavior as both
discourteous and disrespectful to the
deedent as well as officer and training
smiggle. Hey Buzz, go help. I feel like
you're pranking me. I'm not. Officer
Mullenex was removed from the FTO
program and placed on a 3-day suspension
without pay. Officer Michelle Peterson,
whose comments were described as
disrespectful and derogatory, showing
disregard for the basic human dignity of
the deedent, was found in violation of
two department policies. You know, like
the whole
Officer Peterson was issued a written
warning. Field training officer Mark
Keep was found to have violated eight
department policies. The report states
that officer Kee acted in a way that was
unprofessional, bullying, and
disrespectful of the deceased.
Additionally, it was found that officer
Ke's self-admitted direction to Smiggle
to not include critical details
regarding Smiggle's actions in the final
report did constitute a direct violation
of department policies. You guys suck.
That we had to do that. It's okay.
According to a press release from the
Salt Lake City Police Department,
Officer Keep resigned. Internal Affairs
determined that Smiggle violated only
one policy, which prohibits
discourteous, disrespectful, or
discriminatory treatment of the public.
Just poke it.
There's no record of discipline for
recruit Smickle. A letter dated February
10th, 2025 confirms the district
attorney's office declined to seek
criminal charges. A later examination of
Jason's body did not find any trauma or
injury. And according to the Salt Lake
City press release, his death was ruled
as accidental, though it didn't provide
further details. On her public Facebook
page, Jason's sister states that he had
a heart of gold and continues to
encourage others to share her brother's