Around The State
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- A body found by a LaPorte County judge has been identified as an Illinois man, Indiana State Police said. The body of Miguel Angel Ayala, 27, of Chicago Heights, Ill., was identified through fingerprints in a federal database, detective Dave Kirkham said Tuesday. Ayala's fingerprints were on record because of a drunk driving charge, he said. Investigators declined to comment on the cause of Ayala's death. LaPorte Superior Court Judge Walter Chapala found the body March 6 while walking in a State Department of Natural Resources fishing site along Trail Creek near the city about 30 miles west of South Bend. The body was wrapped in plastic and covered with yard debris and tree limbs about 6 feet off the edge of a road, police said. Ayala's body has been kept at a morgue in Fort Wayne since an autopsy. Family members are working with the LaPorte County coroner's office to return his remains to Illinois for burial, Kirkham said.

