Body Found In River In Defiance

Accord­ing to an autopsy report, a Defi­ance man, whose body was found in the Auglaize River Mon­day after­noon, died from drown­ing.

The call first came in just before 6 Mon­day evening about a body in the water behind River­side Ceme­tery.

The sheriff’s office dive team, along with Defi­ance Police recov­ered the body of 28 year old Mark Esparza of Defi­ance.

Police say Jim and Carol Zeller of Defi­ance were on a boat Mon­day after­noon and return­ing home whtn the dis­cov­ered the body.

The inves­ti­ga­tion is con­tin­u­ing, and tox­i­col­ogy results from the autopsy are pending.