Lawrence Police are trying to piece together what happened to a 20-year-old Lawrence man found Tuesday morning beaten, unresponsive and with multiple skull fractures and cuts on his head.

“We’re investigating a real whodunit,” said Lt. David Cobb, a police spokesman. “Sometimes you have witnesses, and it’s pretty easy to put together. Sometimes you don’t.”

The man, identified as Travis Adams, shares an apartment with his mother in the 4600 block of West Sixth Street. She told police she awoke about 8 a.m. and found her son unresponsive and covered with blood inside the apartment, Cobb said.

Police initially said the mother had been away from the apartment and found him injured upon returning.

Adams was taken to University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City, Kan., Cobb said, but officials there wouldn’t confirm or deny his presence Tuesday, citing privacy laws.

Based on blood found at the scene, police think Adams might have been the victim of a battery in the apartment parking lot, Cobb said.

“There was evidence indicating he was injured there and walked back into his apartment,” Cobb said.

Officers were on the scene Tuesday canvassing the neighborhood and examining crime-scene evidence, Cobb said, but police still couldn’t say with certainty whether Adams was the victim of a crime.

Lawrence detectives Zach Thomas, left, and Jim Martin search for and label evidence at the scene of the apparent beating of a 20-year-old Lawrence man. Travis Adams was found Tuesday at his West Lawrence apartment and flown to a Kansas City-area hospital.

Adams works at Hy-Vee, 4000 W. Sixth St., where he runs a breakfast-delivery service, a store manager said. Adams was due to work an early-morning shift Tuesday at the store but didn’t make it, Cobb said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, police hadn’t interviewed Adams, Cobb said.

6News video: Police investigating beating