More Details On Body Recovered From River

An autopsy report was released late Tues­day in con­nec­tion with the death of a Defi­ance man, whose body was found in the water along River­side Ceme­tery in Defi­ance late Mon­day after­noon.

Results of that autopsy show that 28 year old Mark Esparza of Defi­ance, died from drown­ing, how­ever tox­i­col­ogy results are still not in.

Esparza’s life­less body was dis­cov­ered along the shore­line in shal­low water. So far, there has been no word of just how long Esparza may have been dead.

In a pos­si­bly related story, Defi­ance Police report that offi­cers were called to the area of South Clin­ton and Sun­day streets in Defi­ance last Thurs­day evening around 8:20, for a report of a gun­shot.

Police say wit­nesses reported a per­son run­ning toward the ceme­tery.

A K-9 unit was brought in to track the sus­pect, but dogs were unable to locate any­one.

So far, no offi­cial word on whether the two inci­dents in that area are con­nected in any way.