VENTURA : Decomposed Body Washes Up on Beach at Harbor

The Ventura County coroner’s office will use dental records today in an effort to identify a badly decomposed body that washed up on the beach Thursday at Ventura Harbor, authorities said.

“The body was in the water for quite a while,” said Deputy Coroner Mitch Breese.

Ventura police received a call at 3:26 p.m. from a witness who reported seeing a body in heavy surf at the harbor’s south jetty, said a Ventura desk officer.

No preliminary cause of death had been determined by Thursday evening, Breese said. Because of the length of time the body appeared to have been in the ocean, Breese said investigators have ruled out the chance the body had drifted to Ventura from a plane crash off Carpinteria on Wednesday.

The body was found less than two miles south of the Pierpont Beach area where 23-year-old Richard Adams of Ventura was reported missing March 4 after walking his dog. Adams, a parking lot attendant, was last seen talking to a man near a stairway that leads to the beach.

His dog was found at the Doubletree Hotel 30 minutes after Adams was reported missing.

Breese said the body found Thursday was dressed in clothing that resembled that worn by Adams when he was last seen.