Columbia man was victim of apparent Callaway County homicide

FULTON, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Callaway County Sheriff's Office has identified a Columbia man whose body was found on a county road Thursday.

The sheriff's office said it discovered the body of Ervin Hayes, 31, on County Road 351 near County Road 350 near the Boone County line, west of Millersburg.

Several agencies are helping in the investigation including the Boone County Sheriff's Department, Columbia Police Department, Fulton Police Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

Investigators are looking into about 50 leads, the release said.

Hayes' death is being investigated as a homicide, the sheriff's office said.

Callaway County Sheriff Clay Chism said Thursday that the investigation will mainly take place in Columbia.

"I would suspect that this is an incident that started in the Columbia area and it came east and we were the final destination," Chism said. "As some other investigations over the past several years of this nature, we expect even though it's a Callaway County investigation, we expect 98 percent of it to be done in Boone county."

He said investigators don't think there's any danger to the public.