Body ID’d as man missing in Tuolumne County

A body found near the Red Hills Recreation Area near Jamestown on June 2 has been identified as Daniel Francis Mulligan, 31, who’d been reported missing the day before.

Investigators don’t suspect foul play “but cannot rule out any scenario until the cause of death is determined and the investigation is completed,” according to a news release Wednesday morning from Sgt. Scott Johnson, spokesman for the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office.

A forensic autopsy was conducted, but a toxicology report is pending and a cause of death cannot be determined until its results are in, Johnson said.

A friend of Mulligan contacted the Sheriff’s Office on June 1 to report him missing. Mulligan had been staying with various people in Tuolumne County. The friend said that on May 19, Mulligan said he was going to visit another friend in the Italian Bar area. He had camping gear and grocery items in his vehicle.

The vehicle was located in the Red Hills Recreation Area – 7,100 acres of public land south of Chinese Camp. An initial search of the area June 1 by ground and using a California Highway Patrol helicopter was unsuccessful.

On June 2, the body was found when the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Department resumed scouring the Red Hills area using ground teams; K-9 units from the Tuolumne and Calaveras sheriff’s departments and the California Rescue Dog Association; and helicopters from the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department and the CHP.

There were no obvious signs of trauma, according to a report by the Union Democrat in Sonora.

This story was originally published June 10, 2015 at 8:49 AM with the headline "Body ID’d as man missing in Tuolumne County."