Former Oregon Ducks linebacker, 21, is found dead in a bush near where his drunk-driver friend crashed his car and told police there were no passengers inside

A former Oregon University football player was found dead in a bush close to an area where his friend crashed his car hours earlier.

The body of 21-year-old Fotu Tuli Leiato, from Steilacoom, Washington, was found early Friday morning in some heavy brush near Autzen Stadium at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Kinsrow Avenue in Eugene, the Eugene Police Department said in a Facebook post. A woman walking by the area around 6.51am said she spotted a hand and brush over a person down a gravel path.

Hours earlier, around 2.31am, Leiato's friend Pedro Chavarin Jr. had been involved in single-vehicle rollover crash near the area where the body was discovered. Chavarin, who is suspected of drunk driving, had told police that there were no passengers in his Kia Sedan when he crashed it.

Chavarin, 22, was hospitalized after the accident and cited in lieu of custody for DUI.

But authorities have now revealed that Leiato was in his friend's car when it crashed and rolled over into some brush on the side of the road.

Tributes to Leiato have been pouring on Twitter from former teammates and fans.