Cause of death undetermined for man found in ravine in Lawrence

Douglas County Coroner Dr. Erik Mitchell ruled the cause of death remains undetermined for a 32-year-old Lawrence man who was found in June in a ravine in east Lawrence, but Lawrence police said they do not consider the death to be suspicious.

A Brookwood Mobile Home Park resident found the body of Gary Lee Jones Jr. in a creek area between two entrances to the park, 1908 E. 19th St. In an autopsy report completed last week Mitchell found that the body was significantly decomposed and that one of the significant possibilities was that Jones drowned because the creek fills up during periods of heavy rain “such as described on the day” Jones disappeared.

But Mitchell also ruled that many other possible causes of death could not be refuted based on the autopsy. The coroner also found that Jones had a remote gunshot injury to his pelvis, but Capt. Paul Fellers, a Lawrence police spokesman, and that the gunshot wound was an old injury.