Object of Search : Missing Man’s Body Found Off Beach

The body of an 18-year-old mentally retarded man who had been missing for nearly a week was found Friday floating in the ocean off Sunset Beach, authorities said.

John Joseph Wolsiffer of La Mirada, who also suffered from epilepsy, had been the target of an intensive search by his family and sheriff’s deputies since he wandered away from his sister Sunday during an outing at Sunset Beach. Wolsiffer had told his sister he was going near the ocean to play but never returned, authorities said.

The skipper of a crew boat assigned to an offshore oil platform spotted the body about 4 miles offshore shortly after 10 a.m. and called authorities, according to Lt. Richard J. Olson, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The coroner’s office has preliminarily listed the cause of death as drowning, Olson said. He said the body had been in the water since Sunday and that there was no trauma on it that would indicate foul play.

Wolsiffer, whose mental age was estimated at 8 or 9, depended on daily medication to control his epilepsy.