Social Media Death Claim in Mesa County Determined to Be Hoax

On July 16, 2026, at about 6:40 p.m., deputies and investigators with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office were alerted to an anonymous social media post claiming a local resident had been killed. Investigators confirmed the named individual is alive and say they have identified the post’s creator; they ask the public not to call Dispatch about the initial or continued posts while follow-up continues. No further information is available at this time.