Body found off forest road near Cougar, deputies investigating

Deputies are investigating after a body was found Thursday afternoon in northern Skamania County, about 6 miles west of Cougar near the Gifford Pinchot National Forest boundary.

According to the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded around 2:15 p.m. to a call about “suspicious circumstances” on National Forest Road 83, near the junction with National Forest Road 90. There, they found a dead person.

Due to the setting sun, deputies secured the scene and arranged for additional help to investigate the next day, the sheriff’s office said Friday morning.

“This investigative effort is in the very early stages, and as a result, there is no additional information that can be released or reported,” Skamania County Sheriff David Brown said in a news release.

The sheriff’s office said investigative work will likely cause traffic delays on National Forest Road 83, impacting recreational traffic to Ape Cave and the Marble Mountain sno-park, which provides access to a Mount St. Helens climbing route.

The agency said it expected traffic delays would be limited to the morning and early afternoon Friday. However, in an update late Friday afternoon, Brown said “the processing and mapping” of the scene was taking longer than anticipated.