UPDATE: Forensic sketch helps identify deceased drowning victim from Mexico
Posted: Aug. 26, 2010 3:38 PM
Forensic sketch of deceasedOn Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010 at 7 p.m., an unidentified Hispanic man was discovered deceased and submerged in the Wagon Wheel Park area of the Molalla River. The deceased was recovered from the Molalla River by a concerned citizen, and Molalla Fire & Rescue personnel responded to assist.
Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Patrol personnel also responded to the scene to investigate. No witnesses, friends or relatives were located at the scene to provide investigators with any relevant identification of the deceased. The deceased was found with no articles of identification on his person.
The Sheriff's Office and the Clackamas County Medical Examiner's Office launched a death investigation into the matter. It was soon determined the deceased had drowned and was not the victim of foul play.
A forensic sketch artist from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office was directed by investigators to draw a picture of the deceased. While working from an investigator's photograph of the deceased, this artist created the drawing of the unidentified man.
This completed sketch was then published by media outlets throughout the region.
The completed forensic sketch was then recognized by a man in the Woodburn area.
On Aug. 21, 2010, this Woodburn man contacted the Molalla Police and provided critical information about the identity of this previously unknown drowning victim.
The reporting party -- Ostiano Guzman Martinez -- told police that he'd received a phone call from a friend declaring he had seen the publicized forensic sketch on a televised news broadcast and believed this was their mutual friend, known as ISIDRO ESTEBAN SANCHEZ GUTIERREZ, age 22, a Mexican National.
Investigators learned that ISIDRO ESTEBAN SANCHEZ GUTIERREZ had rented a room at the home of his friend Ostiano Guzman Martinez, and discovered that Isidro Esteban Sanchez Gutierrez was a hard=working man who sent money home regularly to his mother in Mexico.
The Clackamas County Deputy Medical Examiner reports that the Mexican Consulate in Portland and Oaxaca played a vital role in ultimately locating the family of the deceased in Mexico.
The family death notification has been completed, and the case has now been closed by authorities.