An investigation continues into the death of a 23-year-old Rohnert Park man, whose body was found by passersby near the campus Butterfly Garden last Friday.

Saul Morales-Ramirez, who was not a student at SSU, appears not to have been the victim of foul play, sheriff’s office investigators said. The cause and manner of death is pending on autopsy results, toxicology screenings, and compiling of witness interviews. 

Morales-Ramirez was a 2016 graduate of Petaluma High School but lived in Rohnert Park.  

Students and faculty at Sonoma State were notified by email Friday afternoon that the body of a local man had been found by community members walking near the Butterfly Garden on campus that morning. 

Community members who found the body called 911 around 7:50 a.m. on Friday morning and directed emergency personnel to where the body was located. The Butterfly Garden is located on the northeast side of campus and is a part of the Sonoma State Botanical Gardens, a secluded area of campus with hiking trails and native plants designed to attract butterflies. 

The death is currently under investigation by both the Sonoma State University Police Department and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department Coroner’s Division although  officials say there is no solid information at this time to suspect a crime occured. 

Morales-Ramirez had been arrested numerous times in 2017 for suspicion of felony evading, resisting arrest, possession of valium for sale and driving under the influence, according to records from the Sonoma County Superior Court. Since then he was arrested multiple times for violation of parole and in 2020 for battery on a spouse or cohabitant. A criminal protective order was ordered by the judge in that case to protect the witness or victim of the crime.

This is not the first time a body has been found on Sonoma State’s campus. In Nov. 2016 the dead body of Kirk Kimberly, also not a student, was found in a shallow grave with evidence that he had been stabbed to death. After years of ongoing investigations, an arrest was made in 2020 for his murder. The suspect, Daniel Carrillo, has been held in prison since 2017 on unrelated charges but is facing 25 years to life for the crime.

This is an ongoing breaking news story that will be updated when more information is available.