Family identifies body found in Delaware River in Philadelphia as missing 42-year-old man
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The body found in the Delaware River on Thursday afternoon matches the description of a 42-year-old man who went missing earlier this week, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. Police are investigating the man's death as suspicious.
"It doesn't appear to be a normal drowning at this time," Small said. "Now, this victim may have drowned. However, what we found on the body does appear to be suspicious."
The family identified the missing 42-year-old man as Darnell Dogan.
Small declined to get into specifics about what was on Dogan's body. He said an autopsy would be done at the medical examiner's office and be completed on Friday. Small said there weren't any "obvious signs" of trauma on the body.
Small said police and the Philadelphia Marine Unit responded to a report of a body in the water at about 3:30 p.m. in the area of Linden and Delaware avenues. Dogan was pronounced dead at 4:20 p.m., police said.
Along with the description, Small said the man's clothing matched what family reported to police. Family on the scene Thursday also believed the body was Dogan.
Small said Dogan was on a boat with friends or acquaintances on Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning on the Delaware River. That's when family believes he went missing or "fell off the boat," Small said.
"We got a family hurting here ... that's my baby, that's my baby boy," Juanita Johnson, Dogan's mother, said.
"He was just down here fishing. That's it. So I don't understand it," Johnson said.
Johnson said she will especially miss phone calls from her son.
"Days [didn't] go by without him calling and saying 'Mom, you all right?' To know he is not going to call my phone no more, oh my God. This so hard. This is so hard," she said.
Small said Dogan was reported missing by family around 4 p.m. on Wednesday. It's unclear if the people on the boat reported to police that he was missing, Small said, but it will be a part of law enforcement's investigation.
Small said the Philadelphia Police Department's Northeast Detectives spoke with the people who were on the boat with Dogan, and they plan on following up.
The vehicle Dogan drove to Linden and Delaware avenues was still parked near the water when police recovered the body, Small said. The vehicle was towed and police plan to search the car as part of their investigation.
Small said the Philadelphia Police Department's Homicide Unit and Northeast Detectives are involved in the investigation.