The Baldwinsville Police Department has determined the identity of a man who drowned in the Seneca River near Riverside Cemetery the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 7. Chief Michael Lefancheck said the victim was a 54-year-old man from San Diego, California, who had family in the Baldwinsville area. In accordance with the family’s wishes, the man’s name will not be released.
The man’s death was ruled a suicide after a police investigation. An autopsy by the Onondaga County Medical Examiner determined that the cause of death was drowning.
Lefancheck said it appeared the man returned to B’ville, where he lived about 20 years ago, in order to commit suicide. He sent a package containing some personal effects and a note
If you or someone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts, don’t hesitate to get help. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visit crisischat.org to talk with a trained Lifeline Crisis Chat specialist. If you’re in immediate danger of harming yourself, call 911.
to a relative in Baldwinsville before drowning in the Seneca River the morning of Oct. 7.
“Members of the Baldwinsville Police Department were able to determine the man arrived in the area from California on Tuesday [Oct. 6], and that he mailed a package to one of his relatives in the Baldwinsville area with his personal effects later that same day, indicating his intent to harm himself,” read a release from the police department.
Using information from the package’s receipt, which was discovered with the man’s body, police contacted the family before they received the package.
Before the man’s drowning, staff at Riverside Cemetery alerted police to a collection of objects in the cemetery, including a backpack, clothing and liquor bottles.
“We’re not 100 percent certain those items belonged to him, but we believe they did,” Lefancheck said. “Officers had started to do some legwork on that.”
Lefancheck said a witness reported seeing a person fitting the man’s description walking down the southwest trail past Lock 24 between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Tuesday evening.
“We found he had been in some stores and purchased some things,” Lefancheck said.
After investigating the items left in Riverside Cemetery, officers were called back to the scene after a witness reported seeing a body floating in the river around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The man’s body was found floating approximately 10 feet offshore, downriver from a floating dock. There is a 10-foot drop from the river bank to the water.
