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A body that was found in Forester Creek in Santee Tuesday has been confirmed as a storm-related death, the Medical Examiner’s office told NBC 7 on Wednesday.
Crews with the Santee Fire Department were alerted around 1 p.m. Tuesday to the body near Mission Gorge Road and Carlton Hills Boulevard as heavy rain poured down across the county. The recovery effort to retrieve the body was complex and expected to take two hours, the official said.
The male body may have been there for more than a week, according to an official with the Santee Fire Department. Officials have not released his identity.
His body may have been tied to a rescue call during a thousand-year flood on Jan. 22, the official told NBC 7. On that day, the Santee Fire Department received three calls about people in the water. Two bodies were found and crews believe this may be a third death in connection with that incident.
Last Friday, the Medical Examiner’s office released the name of one of the victims and asked for the public’s help to identify the other by releasing a sketch and a description of the woman who died. They were part of three deaths being investigated as storm-related by the ME’s office.
A man also died overnight Tuesday in a rain-filled Tijuana River by the U.S.-Mexico border. It was not immediately clear if the storm was a contributing factor.