MUSCATINE, Iowa — Daniel See of Muscatine said it’s comforting to know his former neighbor, Robin Lee Roberts, likely spent his final moments in the sort of  place he loved best.

A hiker found Roberts’ body early Monday evening near Iowa Highway 22 and Forest Lane, approximately 4 miles east of Muscatine, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.

The body was removed from the scene and taken to the Office of the State Medical Examiner in Ankeny for autopsy.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office said the body had been identified as Roberts through matching fingerprints.

According to Sheriff’s Office officials, there was no immediate indication of foul play at the scene but an investigation is being conducted.

See and others who knew Roberts said they were not surprised that he was found with his bicycle and backpack.

“He rode that bike all around,” said See. “And we know he loved nature. He did a lot of camping.”

According to Sheriff’s Office reports, Roberts may have been dead for up to a month, but Sheriff’s Office Detective Michael Bailey said there wasn’t a missing person’s report out for Roberts

in Iowa.

However, there was one in Utah.

That’s where Roberts spent some of his final days camping in the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Kanab, Utah, according to park ranger Michael Franklin.

Franklin said he filed a missing person’s report for Roberts in late August, approximately two weeks after Roberts left all of his camping gear and his diabetic supplies, including insulin, at his campsite and left with his bicycle.

Roberts left the state park sometime after he was in a motor vehicle accident at Zion National Park, which is about 30 miles away from Coral Pink Sand Dunes, said Franklin.

The wreck happened Aug. 18, according to a report Franklin obtained on the incident, and Roberts’ vehicle was towed to Kanab.

“The tow truck driver let him, (Roberts) use his car to go back out to his camp site,” said Franklin. “He got his bike and left.”

Franklin said he never met Roberts, but was concerned by the way he abandoned his campsite.

“I listed him as a missing and endangered person because of the medical condition,” said Franklin. “There were needles and insulin in his personal effects and as a law person, you have to look at these things.”

Franklin said he filed the missing person report around Aug. 28. Roberts never returned to claim the vehicle and it has since been listed as abandoned, said Franklin.

After learning on Wednesday of Roberts’ death, See recalled some of the last things he and Roberts discussed as Roberts moved out of the duplex at 111 E. Ninth St. in July.

“He said he was going on a vacation for a few weeks,” said See, who still lives in the duplex. “We hadn’t seen him since.”

See and Eddie Bravo, another resident at the duplex, said that Roberts sometimes had a difficult time getting his diabetes under control.

Both men said Roberts had come to them at different times when they were neighbors, when he seemed to be suffering from some type of diabetic complication. He would ask for help and Bravo and See said they would give him juice or whatever kind of food or drink Roberts needed to help stabilize his blood sugar.

Another friend of Roberts, Amber Hines of Muscatine, said she worked with Roberts at the Button Factory restaurant in downtown Muscatine, and he told her he had been dealing with diabetes for some time.

Hines, an advertising representative for the Muscatine Journal, said Roberts owned his own window washing business, Nu View of Muscatine, and she spoke with him when he came in to place ads in the paper.

Hines said Roberts never mentioned having a wife or children but she recalled his brother, Michael Roberts, coming into the restaurant.

See said Michael Roberts helped Robin move some things out of his apartment, when Robin left in July.

Michael Roberts could not be reached by press time for comments.

See and Hines remember Robin Roberts best as a bicyclist and avid outdoorsman.

“He loved that bike,” said See. “He’d ride it all across town.”

Can you help?

The investigation into Roberts’ death is ongoing, said Detective Mike Bailey. Anyone with information can contact the Sheriff’s Office at 263-6055.