In Detroit, a frozen body tells the story of a troubled city

In an abandoned warehouse, the image was shocking: two denim-clad, lifeless legs poking up through trash-choked ice.

Investigators who took three 911 calls over two days before finally going out to retrieve the body will try to figure out what killed the man. But this much is clear: It has become another symbol of Detroit’s decay and indifference.

“Most of us grew up with this,” said Mike Corbin, 34, pointing toward the old warehouse and the dilapidated Michigan Central train depot nearby. “It’s depressing. Chicago and New York have their own problems, but those are in certain areas. But in Detroit, it’s the entire city.”

Detroit, with a population of 900,000, ranks among the nation’s leaders in unemployment and home foreclosures. Restructuring by the slumping U.S. auto industry promises to leave more people jobless.

Faced with a budget deficit expected to top $200 million, bond ratings at junk status, a recently ended sex scandal that landed former Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick and his chief of staff in jail, and a federal inquiry into City Hall corruption, Detroit’s fortunes mirror the nameless unclaimed man at the city morgue.

Detroit News reporter and columnist Charlie LeDuff found the body after receiving a tip that it was at the bottom of a submerged elevator shaft in the warehouse. A homeless man was camped a few yards from the shaft but didn’t report it to authorities, LeDuff wrote.

A group of young men playing hockey in the frozen interior also didn’t call police because they were trespassing, LeDuff said. He didn’t quote anybody by name.

Firefighters used saws to cut through the ice Wednesday.

The county medical examiner’s office said an autopsy would have to wait until the body naturally thawed.

Police spokesman James Tate disputed LeDuff’s account that officers failed to respond Tuesday afternoon when he called 911 to report the body. LeDuff wasn’t clear on the location of the body, Tate said.

In a front-page story accompanied by a photo of the legs, LeDuff wrote that he returned Wednesday to find the body still there. It took two more calls to 911 before firefighters and police arrived, he wrote.

Jonathan Wolman, editor and publisher of the Detroit News, told the Associated Press on Thursday that the decision to put the photo on the front page “was not made lightly.”

“We found it to be a shocking image, but at the same time a poignant and heartbreaking one,” he said. “I felt telling the story was profoundly respectful of this victim’s life and death. . . . What it says about the community, I’ll leave that to others.”