By Karen Gleason
Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Border Patrol agents Thursday recovered the body of a man believed to have drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande.
VVSO Lt. Joe Faz, who heads the sheriff’s office criminal investigations division, said Border Patrol agents spotted the body in the river about 8 a.m. Thursday in an area close to the Del Rio International Bridge.
“We responded to assist the Border Patrol and recovered a male individual of an unknown age. He is a John Doe, who carried no identification of any kind,” Faz said in an interview Friday.
The lieutenant said there were no obvious signs of foul play visible on the man, and at this point it is believed the man drowned while attempting to cross the river.
Faz said Justice of the Peace Pct. 2 Antonio “Tony” Faz III pronounced the man dead and ordered an autopsy.
Lt. Faz said the man’s body would be transported to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office in Laredo for the autopsy. Faz said the medical examiner’s office would also take DNA samples from the body to be held for future attempts to identify the man.
Faz said the man may have been crossing with a group and a member of that group might in the future report him missing.
“But as of this date, we have had no one from Border Patrol notify us that anyone told them they are missing a family member or traveling companion,” Faz said.
