CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OR (KPTV) -
An inner tuber floating the Clackamas River appears to have drowned near Carver Park.
Rescue teams were sent out at about 10:25 p.m. Thursday and were staging at Carver Park, but they were unable to find 23-year-old Fernando "Ivan" Ortega Becerra of Portland.
Dive teams returned to the area where he was last seen, as well as several spots downstream, to look for him Friday. At about 12:15 p.m., a water rescue team found Ortega Becerra 600 feet downstream in about 15 feet of water.
Friends who were with Ortega Becerra last saw him swimming toward his inner tube in a swimming hole upstream from Carver Park. The area is commonly known as the rope swing. The friend lost sight of Ortega Becerra while drifting down the river.
Clackamas County deputies said Ortega Becerra wasn't wearing a life jacket.
Though wearing a life jacket on an inner tube is not required by law, deputies said all inner tubers should wear one and that the tragedy likely would not have occurred had Ortega Becerra been wearing one.
A Clackamas County medical examiner is now trying to determine Ortega Becerra's cause and manner of death.
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