Body in Mississippi River is identified

Minneapolis police believe the 21-year-old man from Mounds View jumped into the river April 29.

Last update: May 26, 2009 - 11:15 PM

Authorities on Tuesday identified the body pulled from the Mississippi River on Sunday evening as Edward D. Benjamin of Mounds View.

Benjamin's body was recovered about 6:20 p.m. 40 feet downstream of the gates to the St. Anthony Lock as hundreds of witnesses walked on the Stone Arch Bridge and nearby trails.

Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia said Benjamin is probably the man who jumped into the river on April 29 at 10:51 a.m.

Minneapolis Park Police have security-video footage from April 29 of a man at the lower lock and dam taking off his clothes, scaling a 7-foot security fence and jumping into the river, Garcia said. The man then swam into the lock and dam and disappeared. Identification found in the clothes left behind belonged to Benjamin, 21, Garcia said.

There were no witnesses to the incident that day, when the water temperature was about 34 degrees, Garcia said.

The original report by Minneapolis Park Police listed the incident as a suicide. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office has not ruled on a mode or cause of death.

CHAO XIONG