Trooper believes man’s body was left in state game lands near Mannitto Golf Course
We received *** phone call on Saturday morning that was from *** hunter that was entering into the state game lands and I’m gonna use the the Manitoe golf course as *** reference point, but basically it’s adjacent to the to the golf course and the hunter makes *** 91 phone call that goes to the Kiski station basically relating that he found *** *** male that appears to be deceased that is. Roughly 25 or so feet off of what would be like *** pull off to park into the state game lands I believe it was the first day of pheasant season if I’m not mistaken on Saturday so. We go down and respond to the scene, you know, there’s definitely is *** male that is deceased. Uh, upon examination of, of his body and the surrounding area, you know, it, it, it would appear originally that, um, it would at least be suspicious, um, and at the time we are unable to determine his identity. There’s no, uh, identification cards or or information that would help us to to tell us who he is. I put out *** *** tweet, um, we still call it *** tweet which I put out ***, uh, I used the the Twitter account. To put out some identifying tattoos that we were able to to take pictures of and and I put those out on Saturday. We were able to work through, get some tips and leads, and ultimately determined that the person, uh, that was deceased was Robert Lee Friend, uh, roughly 47 years old, and he doesn’t really have, uh, what we consider like *** an an address where he stays or lives permanently. I’m *** little bit more of *** person that maybe goes house to house or drifts *** little bit generally in the Greensburg area would be where we would associate him. And we had to do *** *** next of kin notification obviously uh which was *** sister that lives in West Newton. Uh, still, uh, early on in our investigation, even though it’s, uh, we’re like almost 2 days into it, uh, really leaning into the public to hope we get some help because, you know, right now we don’t know why he was found where he was. Um, the autopsy is actually taking place as we speak, so the cause of death, I, I, I don’t, we don’t have that. And uh we really have no other information about his whereabouts, about his general habits of travel uh and. The fact that he was found. You know, in the state game lands I wouldn’t rule out the fact that it it didn’t take place, uh, it didn’t take place at the state game lands that that pull off area, um, there’s *** high likelihood that he was placed there, so we’re kind of leaning into the public to see, uh, if you know him or if you let him stay at your residence, uh. Uh, anything that you can do, provide us if you want to contact the Kiski station, and we’d love to sit down and have an interview with you if we need to come to your place, obviously we, we will come to your location. So I, I know I’m, I’m really not giving you *** ton of information unfortunately we don’t have *** ton of information right now, uh, it’s. You know, and then even when I find out, uh, the cause of death probably. Probably can’t give you that um the more I think about it because you know the only people that will know how it happened is the people that committed the crime right? and then and then law enforcement so that’s probably another thing even though when I find that I probably can’t give you that information either because I don’t wanna hurt the case. So I know that’s not *** ton of information, but that’s where we stand right now. Uh, I mean, you could ask me questions. I, I really don’t have *** ton. Would you consider his demise? I know you can’t put *** label on, but would you at least say suspicious? It’s suspicious to say the least. I, I, I, I’m sure they’re gonna know here later this afternoon. I’ll be shocked if it’s not something that would lend itself towards, uh, some type of homicide. It would be like with it again, that’s purely pure speculation on our end. But it appears something happened. That caused Mr. Friend to be in that location. Uh, it, it doesn’t seem like he was just walking there and fell over from *** heart attack, and the little bit I think I can give you that would probably help pin down some information is that. This his he probably was deceased late Friday or early Saturday like early early Saturday morning trying to go by the different uh things that the coroner’s office uses to determine uh like *** time of death, so with, you know, rig and mortars things and things of that nature. So those are some of the the things that that our investigation that I I can share with you and that we do know. So we would think that if you were with him or were within his vicinity late Friday you’re probably *** good source of information for us to have *** conversation with if you’re able to to try to sit down and talk to us, well, obviously we’ll take calls anonymously uh prefer to have them so that we can ask questions and I do know that uh we’ve reached out to Crime Stoppers. There’s gonna be at least *** $2000 reward as of right now. Uh, for any information that would lead us to making an arrest of the individual that, uh, we believe that we find out to be the cause of, of Mr. Friend’s death. There was no reports of him missing he. I mean he obviously has family no no kids, no children, uh, just kind of happened to bounce around from from place to place generally when people bounce from place to place, it’s not uncommon for someone to, you know, not have *** missing person report because they have *** tendency to, to drift, but in, in this case, you know, we, we found him or he was found I should say. Not that long after his demise, so, um, whether it’s, you know, 68 hours or so, you know, roughly for we’re guesstimating, which would put it late Friday or very early on Saturday. So there was no signs that he was. I find it hard to believe that he would be pheasant hunting. He didn’t have the equipment to go pheasant hunting with unless he was gonna try and. Catch them. None of his clothing is evident that like no. So, so, so yeah, he, he, he, he wasn’t in there to go hunting. And and that’s right next to *** golf course. People are there around there. I know you’re early in this, but you’ll have any reason to believe that this is any external threat to anyone else? I I. Seems isolated, um, they just cross. I, I believe that the 17th hole is near where that pull off is if I remember correctly, just from, you know, being out and about driving around, but, uh, I, I believe that’s where that pull off area is and I don’t other than the fact that. You know, he’s no longer alive. And unfortunately we don’t have any what I would consider solid information. uh, now I’ll be shocked if we don’t start to develop information you guys have always been *** great source of getting this type of of information out to the public and the public in Southwestern PA overall they’re great human beings uh they get back to us. I mean if somebody was involved in this and they want to come forward. There’s no reason why you can’t come and maybe something happened or there was *** mistake or an accident or you know maybe some alcohol was involved or something happened that maybe fogged your memory or whatever and then you wanna come back and and you wanna sit down and talk to the people at the Kiski station you know there’s. You would only make it worse. By not coming forward. That’s what I would say if you’re the person and you’re you’re watching this or you know the person. And I will say this if you have information or were shared information or any type of co-conspirator. There’s charges that can go along with that that would be equivalent to the person that actually did it right so uh that’s the last thing you’d want to have happen if for some reason in *** an alcoholic induced state that maybe you did stuff you shouldn’t have done or you wouldn’t have normally would have done so uh but we can talk to you at the Kiski station we could have investigators come to you and we can try and work through this so that the family could at least uh have some type of of solace of what happened or how uh Mr. Friend’s demise came to happen. Basically, are you describing him as *** transient? I would say transient would be *** fair, fair term, uh, that he happened to, you know, not really necessarily stay at the same place all the time, but generally in the Greensburg area, um, not far from the bubble if you wanted to give him like *** 20 mile radius or so about where he traveled or hung out or crashed for the night, right? Was he, did you? Does the PSP ever have any interactions with, uh, so I, we, when I talked to the trooper about if anybody had knowledge of him, I mean that’s why they couldn’t ID him, uh, so the, the people at the at the scene up there, they didn’t have any cardinal knowledge of him or you know, one of our people that we deal with on *** consistent basis. Did he have any obvious wounds? Uh, so I, there were things that would lead us to believe that he, uh, somebody most likely, uh, inflicted some, some type of, of, of injury to him that caused this, so that’s, but that’s cursory and he, he’s, uh, Mr. Friend’s body is down at the corners having an autopsy so I feel pretty confident that after that’s done we’ll have *** *** *** better cause of death but even at the time I don’t know unless for some reason. It ends up being *** heart attack, which I find it very hard to believe, um. Then I probably won’t be able to give you that information because I’ll probably hurt the case and I don’t wanna do that. Did you say if there was anything else found with his body? There’s nothing that helped us ID him that I could say there was no identification and that’s that’s unfortunately why I had to send out the very um ambiguous message about the tattoos because uh we were trying to identify them without. Maybe alerting somebody that might have been involved in in what took place that we you know that we um had Mr. Friend and. You know, so if anybody has information, I would implore them to come forward and we’ll work through it the best we can, um, when it comes to keeping their identity, uh, if we have to to keep their identity off the record. Forgive me, you said this happened. You got the call about this Saturday morning, *** hunter that was traveling into the state game lands to pheasant hunt discovered Mr. Friend’s body, made the phone call. Uh, didn’t appear to that person to just other than going hunting and being in *** in *** in *** rough place. I don’t wanna say it was *** it was the wrong place because he was able to help us so it was great for law enforcement, but I could imagine for *** person that’s just out and about to see *** human being that there’s no longer alive is probably tough, um, so we offer services to the people that that run across those types of tough scenarios so um but we we we appreciate him and making the phone call and getting us down there right away. And you guys have done cases similar to this where. The body is found and you have to put together the pieces from there but I can tell just just by your manner and and what you guys know right now I mean how odd is this situation based on what we know about the victim what little we know about I mean just. Is this just *** case. It’s, it’s, it’s definitely different, right? We, we’re basically starting from scratch. This is *** uh *** whodunit most likely from the from the jump, right? We found *** and this is *** test of all tests for an investigator. It’s not, I mean most of most most homicides, I mean you could look up statistics are either over some type of, of we’ll call it passion um so it’s between two people with, with some type of relationship whether it’s *** spouse’s boyfriend, girlfriend. Sisters, brothers, right, it’s so there’s some type of passion or drug related. those are by far it’s not it’s, it’s not even close. It’s well, well under the 90%, right, of, of what you know this and and this. You know, Mr. Friend doesn’t appear to have what you would consider the first one, and so now it’s ***. Why was he in the state game lands deceased right with no identification so. But I feel confident in our investigators that you know obviously we we’ve been working around the clock and now it’s gonna be *** little bit easier because general business hours of some some locations and businesses that we can get *** hold of and start really trying to like lock down Mr. Friend’s location. And uh the media outlets are *** little tougher to use on the weekends, right? You had the Steeler game, things of that nature, so you’re missing some broadcasts. People aren’t necessarily watching the news that would normally watch the news. So with I would say Twitter being our only true source of media outlet over the weekend. Uh, it makes it *** little bit more difficult to, to disseminate that information and try and develop leads and things of that nature. So now the people are back to their, their weekly, their weekly activities, I feel like, you know, I’ll be shocked if from the broadcast today and the hard work that you guys do to push information out to the general public, I’ll be shocked if we don’t start getting phone calls so that’s why I would say if you’re the person that was involved in this. You’re better off coming forward on your own. Than having us come chase you down. Steve, I, I would imagine this is *** pretty isolated area, not some area that you would normally have somebody wander into. Sure, right, it’s ***, it would be an area that would be convenient if you had to pull over somewhere, right? So, um, not saying that happened, but I, I, I wouldn’t be surprised we’re not ruling out the fact that this took place somewhere else, uh, and then Mr. Friend was dropped off there so. Uh, we’re working through that. We’re hoping the people out in the community watch this broadcast and come forward and help us. We’re and we’re asking for your help.
Trooper believes man’s body was left in state game lands near Mannitto Golf Course
Updated: 4:40 PM EDT Oct 27, 2025
Pennsylvania State Police are asking for information after a man was found dead on state game lands near a golf course in Westmoreland County. LIVE VIDEO: Watch the PSP news conference in the video player aboveRobert Friend was found dead early Saturday on state game lands near Mannitto Golf Club, Pennsylvania state Trooper Steve Limani said.Pennsylvania State Police believe his death happened between late Friday and early Saturday morning.“I’m not giving you a ton of information — that’s because we don’t have a ton of information right now,” Limani said. “We’re basically starting from scratch. This is a whodunit from the jump. This is the test of all tests for an investigator.”Despite not having much information, Limani said authorities believe Friend’s body was left at the location, adding it does not appear he walked to where he was found. “It appears something happened to cause Friend to be in that location,” Limani said. “It’s suspicious to say the least. I’ll be shocked if this was not something that lent itself towards a homicide.” Limani said that Friend was a transient but was generally around the Greensburg area prior to his death. Friend has a lengthy criminal record. Pittsburgh Action News Four discovered that the 64-year-old has been charged with aggravated assault and DUI before. Most recently, he was arrested by Westmoreland County Park Police for terrorist threats in late September. That was an active case.Friend’s death is considered to be suspicious. An autopsy is being performed to determine the cause of his death. “You would only make it worse by not coming forward,” Limani said. “If you have information, were shared information, or you’re a co-conspirator, there are charges that can go along with the person who actually did it.” Anyone who saw Friend on Friday is asked to call state police at 724-697-5780.Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.
NEW ALEXANDRIA, Pa. —
Pennsylvania State Police are asking for information after a man was found dead on state game lands near a golf course in Westmoreland County.
LIVE VIDEO: Watch the PSP news conference in the video player above
Robert Friend was found dead early Saturday on state game lands near Mannitto Golf Club, Pennsylvania state Trooper Steve Limani said.
Pennsylvania State Police believe his death happened between late Friday and early Saturday morning.
“I’m not giving you a ton of information — that’s because we don’t have a ton of information right now,” Limani said. “We’re basically starting from scratch. This is a whodunit from the jump. This is the test of all tests for an investigator.”
Despite not having much information, Limani said authorities believe Friend’s body was left at the location, adding it does not appear he walked to where he was found.
“It appears something happened to cause Friend to be in that location,” Limani said. “It’s suspicious to say the least. I’ll be shocked if this was not something that lent itself towards a homicide.”
Limani said that Friend was a transient but was generally around the Greensburg area prior to his death.
Friend has a lengthy criminal record. Pittsburgh Action News Four discovered that the 64-year-old has been charged with aggravated assault and DUI before. Most recently, he was arrested by Westmoreland County Park Police for terrorist threats in late September. That was an active case.
Friend’s death is considered to be suspicious. An autopsy is being performed to determine the cause of his death.
“You would only make it worse by not coming forward,” Limani said. “If you have information, were shared information, or you’re a co-conspirator, there are charges that can go along with the person who actually did it.”
Anyone who saw Friend on Friday is asked to call state police at 724-697-5780.
Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.