Helicopter Pilot Working With Operation Yurok Spots Body of Klamath Drowning Victim

Stock photo from Wiki Commons by Jettijones.

The body of the man missing in a boating accident on the Klamath river since July 15th was located today by a helicopter pilot working with marijuana eradication teams for Operation Yurok, said Humboldt County Sheriff’s spokesperson, Lt. Wayne Hanson. James Dennis Cook, born in 1953, was lost near Blue Creek and Ah-Pah Creek.

The helicopter pilot spotted Cook’s body in the river. A recovery team from the Hoopa Tribal Police Department plus a Humboldt County Deputy took a boat into the water to recover his remains.

The body was located just downstream of where Cook was in the accident. Searchers had been in the area but had not found his remains.  “For some reason the body must have shifted,” Hanson said.

See press release from the Sheriff’s Department:

On 07-21- 2016 at about 10:30 a.m. a Yurok Tribal Police Department Officer in their boat assisted a

Deputy with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office in recovering a body located in the Klamath River just

to the north of the boating accident that occurred on 07-15- 2016. The body was tangled up into branches

and brush located in the river. The body was identified as 63 year old, James Dennis Cook (aka Major).

An autopsy will be conducted by the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office to determine exact cause of

death.

Earlier Chapter: Rescuers Search for Man Lost in Boating Accident on the Klamath River