Dive team recovers body from Deschutes River in Tumwater Wednesday
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office dive team recovered a man’s body from the Deschutes River Wednesday afternoon.
Tumwater police and fire crews responded to the river near River’s Edge restaurant at 2:13 p.m. after people reported a body floating in the water, Tumwater police Lt. Jennifer Kolb said Thursday.
“As you can imagine, it was a pretty busy day on the river yesterday because it was so hot,” Kolb said. “With the assistance of the dive team, we were able to recover the male out of the river.”
The dive team pulled the man out of the water near E Street, just south of Brewery Park at Tumwater Falls, Kolb said. Investigators believe the man was in the water for less than 24 hours and there were no obvious signs of homicidal violence, she said.
“We don’t believe he was there to float the river, so it’s unclear how he ended up in the river,” Kolb said.
When reached on Thursday, Coroner Gary Warnock identified the deceased as a 52-year-old man from Guatemala. An autopsy is scheduled for Friday so his cause of death has not yet been determined.
Sheriff Derek Sanders posted about the recovery on Facebook where he described the man as a “drowning victim.” However, Warnock said that was just an assumption.
“Our thoughts are with the deceased and their loved ones,” Sanders said in his post.
Warnock did not release the man’s name because his office had been unable to contact next of kin as of Thursday morning.
The man had been deported previously in 2017, Warnock said. It is unclear where the man was staying and whether he was staying with anyone recently, he said.
