Deputies probe death at Transformus fest in Horse Shoe

HORSE SHOE – The Henderson County Sheriff's Office is investigating the death of a man Sunday at the Transformus festival.

Law enforcement and emergency personnel responded to a call at about 2 p.m. and found the victim, Jay Houston Marx, 35, unresponsive in a pond, Sheriff's Office Maj. Frank Stout said.

The victim was transported to Park Ridge Hospital and pronounced dead.

Marx, of Annapolis, Maryland, recently had been living in Tryon, Stout said. An autopsy is planned and the investigation is continuing, he said.

The festival was held at Deerfields, a 900-acre private preserve off South Mills River Road.

On the Transformus website, organizers posted an announcement about the incident, noting, "We have and will continue to cooperate fully with the authorities involved. This is a terrible loss, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and the Transformus community."

The website describes Transformus as "a Burning Man sanctioned regional Burn experience dedicated to the principles of inclusion, gifting, decommodification, self-reliance, self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation and immediacy."

According to the website, the Deerfields property is "changed into a ethereal, dream-like world of supernatural beauty; a world that the locals call Mysteria."