The San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office has identified a man who was likely the victim of a homicide before his body was found in the Tijuana River near the San Ysidro Port of Entry last month.
The body of Rodolfo Agosto Castillo-Ancona, 36 of Mexico, was pulled from a swollen Tijuana River near Dairy Mart Road and Clearwater Way on Feb. 22, alongside another man who has not yet been publicly identified and is still being analyzed by the Medical Examiner, according to San Diego police.
The bodies were discovered the night before, but due to rainy conditions and lack of light, San Diego Fire-Recue crews were unable to enter the river to retrieve the bodies until the next morning, SDFD Battalion Chief Oscar Rodriguez said. The bodies were turned over to the ME's office.
"Upon closer examination of one of the males, it was discovered he had trauma to his upper body that indicated he was the victim of a homicide," the San Diego Police Department wrote in a news release. "The second male had no obvious signs of injury that indicated he was the victim of a crime."
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The exact cause of death and manner of death were not released. San Diego police are continuing their investigation and said it is not yet determined if the deaths were connected, or if they occurred on the U.S. side of the border or the Mexico side and drifted into the U.S. due to string currents and recent rain.
On Feb. 13, another body was found in the same area by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and a week earlier a man died while attempting to cross into the U.S., according to officials. The former has not yet been identified and the latter was identified as a 61-year-old man from West Africa who was part of a group of migrants attempting to cross an engorged Tijuana River.
Those bodies were found between storms amid a river that was six feet higher than it was on Feb. 23.
On Feb. 12, a man's body was found in a van that went up in flames at the nearby athletic facility in the 2600 block of Sunset Avenue. The man has not yet been identified and the cause of death remains under investigation.
