Drowning victim was celebrating rebate check

R.J. Jones told a friend at the Monte Rio restaurant where he worked as a dishwasher that he served in Iraq as a medic and watched his brother die on an operating table there.

The real story, according to his adoptive family in New Mexico, is no less sad, especially in light of the 24-year-old’s death Tuesday after he went swimming in the Russian River and drowned.

The family of Roman Alexandrovich Jones said he concocted stories about his life to cope with psychological issues stemming from a horrific childhood in Moscow orphanages, where he was taken after his alcoholic parents could no longer care for him.

Brad Jones and his wife, Gabriela, adopted the boy when he was 9 and brought him to live with them at their home in Santa Fe, N.M.

But what they hoped would be a good life for the boy turned out to be a long and difficult journey that was capped Tuesday night when the couple received a phone call from the Sonoma County coroner.

“We had kind of half-expected him to disappear into the world of the homeless, or hear that he was in jail, but we didn’t expect to hear the news that he was dead,” Brad Jones, a retired railroad employee, said Wednesday.

The couple had received a phone call from Jones earlier Tuesday and were pleasantly surprised that he sounded cheerful. Such communications had grown sporadic over the years as Jones drifted into homelessness and struggled with addictions to alcohol and drugs. “He couldn’t find himself,” his father said. “He was always wearing a mask.”

It’s true that he had a brother, a Korean-born man who was adopted by the couple at age 3. He is alive and well and managing stores in New Mexico, Brad Jones said.

He said Roman Jones struggled throughout his life to fit in after he came to the United States not knowing how to speak English. He was enrolled in special education classes while attending high school in Santa Fe.

After graduating, Jones went on to complete courses in security services at a technical school in Roswell. But after abruptly quitting a job as a security guard, he hit the road for California, according to his parents.

It’s unclear where he lived. The coroner’s preliminary report lists Jones as being homeless.

Last summer in Monte Rio, he worked as a dishwasher and prep cook at Northwood Restaurant, where he was known as a nice young man who seemed reticent to share details about his private life.

The story he shared with fellow prep cook Jeanette Riggs about serving in Iraq struck her as odd since it didn’t seem to jibe with his youthful appearance. She said her suspicions were further raised after she heard that Jones was living in a tent on the banks of the river and had inquired of others where he could go to relieve himself.

“I couldn’t believe that a guy who’d been in Iraq was not much of a camper,” said Riggs.

Authorities said Jones had consumed large amounts of alcohol Tuesday when he decided to go swimming in the river where it meanders beneath an underpass on River Road east of Rio Nido.

Deputies received a 911 call just after 4:30 p.m. from a River Road home along the river. A woman at the house described seeing the young man calling for help near the shore before disappearing.

Divers found his body at about 7 p.m. not far from where he’d entered the water.

The coroner listed the preliminary cause of death as drowning, while awaiting the results of toxicology tests.

Jones had told friends who were with him at the time that he was celebrating an inheritance.

His father said that was another fabricated story, and that his son probably was referring to a $600 tax rebate check he’d received from the federal government. His parents deposited the check into an account.

The couple have not decided what to do about a memorial service for their son.

“We’re going through all of the emotions,” Brad Jones said.