Body found on MoPac in Austin; police investigating

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin police are investigating after a body was found on MoPac. 

The incident happened Friday morning in the southbound lanes near Parmer and impacted the morning commute for thousands of people.

The backstory:

The Austin Police Department says a 9-1-1 call was received at around 6:37 a.m. about an object in the road on MoPac.

The object was in the 12400 block of MoPac which is around the Parmer Lane overpass.

More calls were received about the object, and it was determined through those calls that the object was in fact a body.

"We received multiple more calls saying that that object appeared to be a human body and that that human body had been run over," Austin Police Cpl Matthew Nonweiler said.

An unidentified man was found near the overpass.

Lanes were shut down and traffic was diverted as vehicular homicide detectives conducted an investigation.

All lanes in the area were closed, with traffic backed up to Shoreline Drive at one point.

Police have not released the name of the person who has died.

Local perspective:

"I was driving in from Hutto," a woman who doesn’t want to be identified, said.

She said she was heading southbound on MoPac. She said she was feeling under the weather and decided to stop to get some medicine.

"I stopped at that light, exiting Parmer at 6:35 a.m. and I remember that only because I had to make sure I had enough time to stop at the store before my shift started," the woman said.

She said her husband was in the passenger seat, and he saw someone on the overpass.

"He was just looking down real hard on the bridge, and I was telling my wife, look, look, don’t jump, don’t jump, before I finished saying that I was like, look, he has no shoes, and she didn’t even see it," the woman’s husband said.

Austin police said an unidentified man was found near the overpass.

"If that was the person that was involved, then we saw his last moments and that's so eerie," the woman said.

"I just hope and pray for everybody that’s going through anything," the woman said.

She said she'd remember that moment every day on her drive to work.

"I commute to that area every day, Monday through Friday, so it's going to be definitely on my mind, looking up, looking around," the woman said.

What you can do:

Police said multiple people stopped and talked to detectives.

"From speaking with the Homicide Vehicular Detectives, it sounds like at least one of them has dash-cam video, so hopefully that can help elucidate precisely what happened," Cpl Nonweiler said.

Detectives said they are looking into the possibility that the man may have jumped off the bridge.

"If it was somebody that took their own life, if you're out there hearing this, if you're out there watching this, and you are in the mindset that you feel like you need to end your life, know that there are resources," Cpl Nonweiler said.