San Francisco man pulled from Russian River ID’d

The San Francisco man whose body was pulled Monday from the Russian River was a Ghana-raised model with ambitions of becoming a travel writer, his cousin said.

The man was identified as Mubarak Salisu, 29, by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday.

Salisu, who moved to San Francisco two years ago from Ghana, dreamed of chronicling his travels and had an active presence on social media, said his cousin, Mohammed Sani Abubakar of Ontario.

Salisu was signed as a model to the San Francisco-based Models Inc. Talent Agency in October 2017, the agency said Tuesday.

“I’m shocked,” Sani Abubakar said about his cousin’s death. “I didn’t get time to spend with him.”

The Sonoma County Coroner’s Office still is investigating how Salisu died and whether any drugs or alcohol were factors, said Misti Harris, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. He was reported missing at about 8:40 p.m. Sunday when friends noticed he did not show up for dinner.

“We don’t have any inclination either way as to why he died,” Harris said.

Salisu was staying with a group of friends and his ex-husband at a vacation rental home in the ?15600 block of Riverside Drive, where private docks behind the homes line the water’s edge.

Friends located Salisu’s flip-flops and T-shirt at a dock Sunday night, authorities said. His body was found 12 to 15 feet underwater at about noon Monday by the Sheriff’s Volunteer Search and Rescue dive team.