Boston Duck Boat Finds Body In Charles River, Man Identified

BOSTON, MA — Police identified the body floating in the Charles River found late Monday morning by a Boston Duck Boat tour, according to a spokesperson at the Suffolk District Attorney's office. The body was identified as a that of a 59-year-old Boston man who had previously been reported missing, said Jake Wark of the DA's office. The death will be investigated, but foul play is not suspected.

State Police were notified at about 10:50 a.m. that a duck boat driver found a body in the water beneath the Longfellow Bridge. The State Police Marine Unit and the Coast Guard helped remove the body from the water. It's unclear how long he was there.

In 2011, the most recent year there is data available, there were 40 unintentional drowning deaths among Massachusetts residents and an additional 148 nonfatal near-drowning cases among Massachusetts residents that required treatment at a Massachusetts acute care hospital. Drowning was the leading cause of unintentional injury death among Massachusetts children 0-14 years in 2011, according to Mass.gov.

Each year, there are 3,500 fatal, unintentional drownings in the United States, averaging 10 per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of these, one in five is a child under the age of 14.

Wondering if there have been a lot of folks turning up in the Charles recently read this report>> Recent Drownings Just Accidents Or Something More Sinister?

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Photos by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff