Authorities investigate death of man found on U.S. 70 in Swannanoa

Questions remain around a deadly stretch of U.S. 70 in Swannanoa, where a man was found dead on June 8 and investigators are still trying to piece together how the death unfolded. The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol are both involved, signaling a roadway death that is being treated as a serious, coordinated investigation.

By June 12, the sheriff’s office had identified the remains of the man found on U.S. Highway 70. Officials have said he was struck and killed, but they have not publicly laid out the full sequence of events, including where he was coming from, whether he was walking in the roadway, or what role, if any, a vehicle played beyond the fatal impact.

That uncertainty is why investigators are still seeking help from the public. They need anyone who saw the man, noticed a vehicle stop along the highway, or observed unusual activity on U.S. 70 in Swannanoa before the body was found. Even small details could help reconstruct the timeline on a corridor that moves a great deal of local traffic through one of Buncombe County’s most heavily traveled eastern approaches.

The death also lands in a place where transportation safety and planning have been active concerns for years. Buncombe County’s Swannanoa Small Area Plan says the county adopted the Buncombe 2043 Comprehensive Plan in 2023 and identified the Swannanoa corridor as one of several areas needing more detailed planning. The county says Hurricane Helene increased the need for a recovery and resilience plan for Swannanoa, and that the work will focus on the U.S. 70 corridor and surrounding communities including Riceville, Oteen, Lytle Cove, Lake Eden, Bee Tree, Patton Cove and Buckeye Cove.

Buncombe County’s first Pedestrian Plan, funded with federal aid through the North Carolina Department of Transportation, adds another layer to the picture. The county says the plan is meant to improve sidewalks, crosswalks and connections to schools, job centers and other destinations in unincorporated areas, and more than 1,015 residents took part in the first online survey.

The latest death also echoes earlier fatal pedestrian incidents on U.S. 70 in Swannanoa in 2015, 2017 and 2022, showing why this corridor remains under close public-safety scrutiny. For investigators, the immediate task is finding witnesses and evidence. For the community, the larger question is how to keep people safer along a road that has already seen too many deadly encounters.