Man’s body found in raft off Port Aransas

Investigators believe a body found in a raft 35 miles off Port Aransas might be one of six missing men from Cuba.

About 8:33 a.m. Oct. 10, a fishing vessel saw a drifting raft with a body on board, said Lt. Karl Alejandre with U.S. Coast Guard Station public affairs. The Coast Guard station out of Port Aransas sent a rescue boat to retrieve the body.

The body was taken back to shore and given to the Nueces County Medical Examiner’s Office. Heraldo Pena, investigator with the medical examiner’s office, said Corpus Christi police and the Department of Homeland Security are assisting the office with the case.

Pena said the body was initially reported about two weeks ago about 70 miles off the coast, but Coast Guard officials could not locate it in the water.

Though decomposed and partially mummified, Pena said it is a man and two forms of identification were found on him, but they have different names.

After some initial online research, Pena said the man could be one of six missing men from Cuba who were attempting to get to Mexico or the United States. According to the Cuban online publication 14ymedio.com, 13 men left Isla de la Juventud during the summer. A sister of one of the missing six men reported that only seven of them were deported back to Cuba from Mexico.

Pena said the name on both pieces of found identification matches names of the missing men. He said he has tried to contact family through Facebook but has been unsuccessful so far. It appears the two pieces of identification could belong to relatives because they have the same last name, he said.

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