Man found near San Clemente Island ID’d as missing Navy employee
A U.S. Navy destroyer conducts a training exercise off the east coast of San Clemente Island. A body found this week about 100 feet underwater near the island has been identified as a Navy employee missing since October.
Officials have identified the body found this week near San Clemente Island as a 60-year-old civilian U.S. Navy employee who had been missing since October, authorities said Wednesday.
After being pulled from the ocean by Los Angeles County sheriff’s divers, investigators determined the man is Lee Racicot, according to Lt. Kelly Yagerlener of the county coroner’s office.
Racicot was believed to have gone diving or snorkeling on the night of Oct. 7, but he didn’t show up to work the next day at the Navy-owned San Clemente Island, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported last year.
A search by the Navy and Coast Guard was unsuccessful. On Sunday, a recreational diver spotted a man’s body about 100 feet below the surface, and divers recovered the body Monday morning, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
No cause of death has been determined, Yagerlener said.
San Clemente Island sits about 25 miles south of Catalina Island and 75 miles northwest of San Diego, and is used for training Marines and Navy SEALs.
Racicot was one of the 200 civilian employees at the 57-square-mile island.
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