Body found on I-5; truck abandoned nearby

A man's body was found on Interstate 5 near Milton, Pierce County, on Friday morning, and the Washington State Patrol is investigating how it got there.

A driver going north on I-5 about 3 a.m. when he thought he saw a body on the road, according to Trooper Brandy Kessler. The motorist stopped and found the body in the middle of I-5 and tried to stop traffic, but one vehicle hit the man.

Troopers found an abandoned semitruck about 100 feet from where the body was found. It had gone off the road and hit semitrailers in a parking lot of an industrial park. The 39-year-old man whose body was on the highway is from British Columbia, Kessler said. The man was dead when the vehicle hit him, but she said she doesn't know whether he had been struck by other vehicles.

She said it would be unusual for the man to have tried to walk across the freeway when there was a nearby overpass.

Troopers are hoping anyone who saw the accident will call the State Patrol.

The discovery of the body shut down most of I-5 for about three hours, causing a five-mile backup.