SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office has confirmed that the body found in Ocean Beach on Wednesday was the kayaker who went missing on Valentine's Day.
A county spokesperson sent an email to our newsroom stating that the person who died was positively identified as Daniel Marron III.
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department had suspended the search for the missing kayaker the evening of Sunday, Feb. 16. That same weekend, family members identified the kayaker who went missing as Danny Marron as they distributed flyers with his information.
He had gone missing slightly north of where the body was found Wednesday in Ocean Beach.
Search crews found the kayak the afternoon of Valentine's Day overturned and damaged about 500 yards west of the Mission Bay Entrance Channel, per the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard said the kayak “appeared new with no signs of use and was found broken in half.”
According to an SDFD spokesperson, lifeguards received a report of a body spotted in the surf Wednesday morning; however, that search concluded by 8:45 a.m.
By 2 p.m. Wednesday, SDFD confirmed to ABC 10News that a body was located near Abbott Street, in the area of Cape May Avenue Beach.
A beachgoer named Andrew and his son were out running along the beach when they came across the body.
“We did a little sprint on the beach, and then he stopped a little short of where we were going to,” Andrews told ABC 10News. "And then so we got a little closer to it to check it out and I realized it wasn't a bird, it was a body.”
This is a developing story. ABC 10News has sent a photojournalist and reporter to the area to gather the latest details.
