A body discovered by a snorkeler in a Mendocino County river has been identified as that of a Los Angeles man who had been at a nearby reggae festival.
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The man — Robert Samuel James, 66 — had traveled with a friend to Reggae on the River, which took place the first weekend of August at a campground near Piercy, the county sheriff’s office said.
Around noon on Aug. 2, the second day of the festival, a snorkeler doing work for an environmental nonprofit found the body in the South Fork Eel River about 1½ miles upstream from the festival grounds.
The preliminary cause of death was found to be drowning, the sheriff’s office said. A full autopsy, including toxicology results, is not complete.
That stretch of the river is close to Highway 271, a rural road parallel to Highway 101. The sheriff’s report said it is not known why James was there.
The death is not connected to a missing-person report the same day concerning a woman who had been seen near the reggae festival. The following day, deputies made contact with her in Willits and determined she did not need help, the sheriff’s office said.
