Border agent apparently drowned in desert canal

A Border Patrol agent whose body was found floating in the Coachella Canal on Friday appears to have accidentally fallen in and drowned, authorities said Wednesday.

Agent Richard Goldstein, a five-year employee based at the Indio station of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was out with his working dog Friday checking for footprints and tire tracks on the dirt roads that border the Coachella Canal near Niland, on the southeastern end of the Salton Sea in Imperial County. The dirt roads are a favorite path for illegal immigrants leaving paved roads.

Goldstein, 37, checked in by radio Friday to indicate that he was safe, officials said, though they could not pinpoint the time.

In the afternoon, agents monitoring video surveillance of the canal noticed that Goldstein’s SUV was parked along the concrete-lined canal with its engine running.

A coroner’s official said another Border Patrol unit found Goldstein’s body about three miles north in the fast-moving Coachella Canal, which runs north from the All-American Canal toward the Coachella Valley in Riverside County.

Lt. George Moreno of the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department said there were “no signs of struggle and no signs of a point of entry” into the canal.

Charles Lucas, Imperial County’s supervising deputy coroner, said Goldstein’s only injuries were minor scrapes consistent with slipping and falling.

“There’s no evidence of foul play,” Lucas said. “The indications are that he fell in.... The canal banks are dirt, and you can lose your balance on the dirt and slip and fall in.”

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maeve.reston@latimes.com