Identity elusive for body found in Gualala River

The CHP continues to investigate the death of a man whose body was found last week on a rock in the Gualala River down from remote Stewarts Point-Skaggs Springs Road.

While authorities believe they know the man’s name, it hasn’t yet been verified due to complications from decomposition, Sonoma County sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said Wednesday.

Coroner’s investigators will try to use dental records to confirm the man’s name but may need DNA testing, which would likely delay the verification for a few months, Crum said.

The body was spotted the night of June 5 and it remains unclear how the man got there. CHP officers are looking into the death, including whether he could have been in a May 27 truck crash in the same area.

Driver Samuel Coria told officers he was the only person in the truck, which went off the rural roadway, tumbled down the embankment and landing roof down in the water. Coria, 48, of Gualala was badly injured but made his way up the steep embankment and walked until a driver came along. He was hospitalized about one week.

The crash occurred in an area near Annapolis Road where heavy rains in late February brought down a hillside and reduced the already narrow road to one lane.