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Aug 25, 11:26 PM

Body found in Atlantic to undergo autopsy

By Lourdes Briz
FLORIDA TODAY

Brevard County medical examiners will perform an autopsy today on a body found Saturday in the Atlantic Ocean about 26 miles off Port Canaveral.

The decomposed body of an unidentified white man was one of at least four bodies or human remains found off Florida's coast during the weekend, according to U.S. Coast Guard officials. Federal and local authorities are still investigating.

Brevard County Sheriff's Office Agent Carlos Reyes, lead investigator in the case, said Sunday the man's body was very decomposed, making it difficult to determine his identity.

"We don't know the details yet," Reyes said. "There have been several incidents in South Florida with boats full of illegal refugees from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, but this doesn't seem to be related."

The Coast Guard put out a warning last week for law enforcement agencies to watch for bodies and remains after a boat filled with immigrants from the Dominican Republic off Jupiter Island. The Martin County Sheriff's Office told other agencies it believed several people jumped from the boat to avoid arrest.

A woman's torso was found Saturday about 12 miles off Martin County and assorted body parts were found in the St. Lucie area.

Reyes said the Brevard sheriff's investigators are not working with other agencies on the discoveries, but that could change if it is found that the body was from one of the migrant boat.

On Friday, the Coast Guard found the remains of three bodies in the waters about 20 miles off Fort Pierce, U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Tony Russell said.

He said the Coast Guard searched the area again Sunday for one overdue vessel that may have come from Cuba with migrants aboard, but stressed it was too early to know whether any of the remains were connected to the fate of those aboard the missing boat.

"We have no way to correlate right now where these remains may have come from," Russell said. "We have multiple search and rescue cases every day."

Also on Friday, a man fishing with his teen-age son and a friend about 22 miles off Fort Pierce Inlet found a human head.

Paul Trabulsy, who was aboard the boat, said they placed the head in a garbage bag within a bucket then resumed fishing, not wanting to cut the trip short.

"It had been out there a while, what's a couple of hours," Trabulsy said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By Jennifer Ellis

FLORIDA TODAY

Aug 26

MELBOURNE, Fla. - An autopsy today revealed little information to help authorities discover the identity of a man found in waters off the coast of Port Canaveral over the weekend. Brevard Sheriff's agent Carlos Reyes said fingerprints taken off the body of the man in his mid-50s were useless because the sea water removed the top layer of skin. "The next step is to try to identify him," Reyes said. "We can't use fingerprints, but we'll try to use DNA or dental evidence. We could do sketches or facial reconstruction, anything to help somebody identify him."

Local authorities have not received any missing persons reports that match the description of the body. The Coast Guard put out a warning last week for law enforcement agencies to watch for bodies and remains after a boat filled with immigrants from the Dominican Republic disappeared off Jupiter Island. The Martin County Sheriff's Office told other agencies it believed several people jumped from the boat to avoid arrest.

On Friday, a man fishing with his teen-age son and a friend about 22 miles off Fort Pierce Inlet found a human head. A woman's torso was found Saturday about 12 miles off Martin County and assorted body parts were found in the St. Lucie area. As of this afternoon, only the torso had been identified but police did not release the woman's identity.

Reyes said he's been in contact with the Border Patrol and Martin County officials and believes "there's a good chance" the body found off Brevard's coast "is that of a refugee."

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