The "Man," a wooden effigy, burns during Burning Man on Aug. 30, 2025.

If you were at Burning Man over the weekend, authorities want to know if you have any information about the identity of a man found "lying in a pool of blood" as thousands watched the wooden Man effigy begin to burn.

The man's death is being investigated as a homicide committed on Aug. 30 sometime between 8 and 9:30 p.m. local time, the Pershing County Sheriff's Office in Nevada said. At an event that drew some 70,000 participants known as "Burners" to the Black Rock Desert to build an entire city from scratch over the week ending Labor Day weekend, the sheriff's office hopes someone saw something that could help the investigation.

Burning Man ends with two large-scale "burns" on the two nights before Labor Day: a 100-foot-tall wooden Man effigy loaded with fireworks, then the burning of the "Temple."

The man was found as the culminating event of the festival began when an event participant flagged down a sheriff's deputy. The sheriff's office and Bureau of Land Management rangers responded, finding a man "obviously deceased." He had not been identified as of Sept. 1, but was described as a white male approximately 35 to 40 years old, about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds with short brown hair and facial hair.

In addition to the identity of the victim, the sheriff's office said it is looking for any information on "any person who would commit such a heinous crime against another human being."

"At this time, no information is too small to disregard," Sheriff Jerry Allen said.

The homicide is not the first time a death has rocked Burning Man. There have been at least eight other deaths at the festival since 1990, including in 2017 when 41-year-old Aaron Joel Mitchell ran into the Burning Man structure.

In 2025, the festival also celebrated new life with the unexpected birth of a baby to shocked parents.

Contributing: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY; Siobhan McAndrew and Brett McGinness, Reno Gazette Journal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Were you at Burning Man? Officials want help identifying victim found in 'pool of blood'

Reporting by Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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