Body of Missing Marin Surfer Washes Up on Rodeo Beach

The body of missing surfer and San Rafael resident Dan Dafoe was found at Rodeo beach Friday, coroner’s officials and the National Park Service say.

Members of the environmental education group Nature Bridge at Ft. Cronkite reported the body and called the National Park Service dispatch at 11:25 a.m., National Park Service spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet said.

“We got a few calls but they were the first,” Picavet said.

National Park Service rangers, the Southern Marin Fire Department and the Marin County coroner’s office were notified, Picavet said.

The identification of Dafoe, 40, was confirmed Friday afternoon through fingerprint comparisons, and an autopsy is scheduled for next week, Chief Deputy Coroner Darrell Harris said.

His body was recovered from the surf line near Rodeo Beach, and the cause and manner of Dafoe’s death are under investigation, Harris said.

Two surfers reported seeing an unconscious man face down in the water at the north end of Rodeo Beach Wednesday and tried to bring him to shore through 8- to 10-foot surf before all three men were hit by a large wave. The surfers lost contact with the man they last saw in the water near a cave at the north end of the beach.

A search for the missing surfer was suspended at 7:09 p.m. Wednesday and resumed at daybreak Thursday morning. The search was called off later in the day.

– Bay City News contributed to this report.