NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said it is working to finalize the identification of a body found this week in the Eel River.
Lt. Shannon Barney said that just before 12:45 p.m. Wednesday the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office received a call related to found human remains in the South Fork of the Eel River, just south of the Humboldt/Mendocino County line in Piercy.
The body was first observed by a wildlife photographer around 9 a.m. that day but the photographer did not recognize it as human remains at first, thinking it might have been a deceased animal, Barney said.
Barney said the photographer later examined the photographs and showed them to a friend, and they decided to contact a member of the Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue Team, or SHTRT, about their concern.
SHTRT notified the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office and then responded to the location with a swift water team to assist in confirming if there was a human body and if so, to assist in body recovery, Barney said.
Team members entered the river with a raft and navigated to a closer vantage point where it was confirmed to be a human body entangled in branches of a downed tree laying partially in the water of the Eel River, according to Barney.
The SHTRT was able to free the body from the tree branches and then navigate back to the shoreline. The body appeared to be that of a white male adult, over 6 feet tall, with a heavy build. Barney said the decedent appeared to have been in the water for a week or more and did not have any identification on him.
On Thursday, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office was contacted by a family member of a missing adult male from Santa Rosa. Barney said the family member advised they heard of the story of the body’s discovery on a local news outlet.
This family member indicated her brother had visited her in Eureka and was last seen leaving to go back to his home in Santa Rosa. This was in mid-November and her brother had not been seen or heard from since then, Barney said.
Barney said the Santa Rosa Police Department does have an active missing persons investigation on the caller's brother. The missing person matches the description of the male who was recovered.
The missing person’s vehicle was later located near Confusion Hill, approximately 6 miles upstream from where the body was found, Barney said.
Barney said the cause of death is not yet know and an autopsy is schedule for Tuesday, Dec. 11.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office is not releasing any further information about the recovered body or the missing person's identify until the remains are positively identified, Barney said.
Mendocino County authorities investigate finding of human remains
- Lake County News reports
- Posted On