Body of man found in Modesto’s Tuolumne River

The body of a man was discovered near the bank of the Tuolumne River just north of the Carpenter Bridge on Thursday at noon.

Residents at a home in the 2300 block of West Hatch Road called law enforcement after they saw from their backyard deck what they thought was a man in about 2 feet of water.

Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department personnel, firefighters with the Burbank-Paradise Fire Protection District and paramedics arrived to find the body.

Lt. Mike Parker of the sheriff’s department said there was no identification on the man, who had only blue jeans on. Because of the cold water, Parker said it was too early to determine how long the body was there.

There also was no way to determine his age or where and how the man might have entered the river, Parker said.

He said his department is treating the case at this point as a suspicious death.

Fire and sheriff’s crew had to navigate a steep embankment to first determine it was a body. They then secured the body to a stretcher, which was pulled up by a rope and supported by personnel to the deck about 50 feet above.

The body will be taken to the Stanislaus County Coroner’s Department for an autopsy.

Parker said it’s the hope that they will be able to make an identification using fingerprints or other investigative measures and match it against any possible missing persons.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Body of man found in Modesto’s Tuolumne River."