Perry County investigators seek witnesses in Saddle Lake death case

Perry County investigators turned to the public on June 9 as they worked to piece together what happened in the Saddle Lake death case. The sheriff’s office asked anyone who saw a gray or silver Ford pickup truck, or anyone who was in the Saddle Lake area overnight between May 24 and the early morning hours of May 25, to contact Tell City Dispatch at 812-547-7068.

Detectives also asked nearby residents to review home security camera footage for anything that could help identify the truck or show who was in the area. The request underscores how narrow the timeline is in the case and how much investigators are relying on local witnesses, trail users, boaters, and neighbors to help reconstruct the final hours before the body was discovered.

The investigation began on Memorial Day morning, May 25, when boaters and fishermen found a dead man in the water near a boat ramp at Saddle Lake Recreation Area and called 911 around 7:15 a.m. Authorities said the man’s car was parked nearby. Because Saddle Lake sits on federal land in the Hoosier National Forest, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been involved from the start, along with Indiana State Police and other agencies.

The Perry County Coroner’s Office identified the man as 43-year-old Anthony Evrard of Tell City. An autopsy was performed, but the cause and manner of death remained undetermined while lab and toxicology results were still pending. Evrard’s obituary said he worked as a fuel truck driver for Pilot.

Investigators also disclosed that Evrard had been arrested three days earlier, on May 22, in Vanderburgh County on a resisting law enforcement charge after deputies responded to a report of a man peeking into women’s apartment windows near 739 Harpy Street in Evansville. That arrest does not explain the death at Saddle Lake, but it adds to the timeline surrounding Evrard’s final days.

Saddle Lake Recreation Area is a remote site with limited development. The U.S. Forest Service says the area now has a primitive campground, a boat ramp and a hiking trail, and Recreation.gov lists 13 campground sites and a 2.4-mile trail around the lake. That relative isolation helps explain why investigators are asking the public to supply what cameras and routine patrols may have missed, especially from the overnight hours between May 24 and May 25.