ISLETON (AP) — A body floating in a slough was identified as a man who was visiting from India and disappeared from his daughter’s wedding reception more than a week earlier.
The Sacramento County coroner confirmed that authorities had found the body of Prasad Moparti, 55, on Monday in a waterway about five miles downstream from the wedding reception where he was last seen alive on Feb. 13.
The coroner has not yet determined a cause of death, but investigators say foul play is not suspected.
Moparti had traveled from his Hyderbad home in central India to his daughter’s Los Angeles home in January.
On Feb. 13, family members say he walked away about 4 p.m. from his daughter’s wedding reception at the Grand Island Mansion, a popular waterfront wedding resort in the region’s delta region about 30 miles south of Sacramento. He was reported missing a few hours later.
Moparti was unfamiliar with the area, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tony Turnbull said. He was last seen walking toward a bridge spanning the slough.
“Family members further indicated Moparti suffered from depression, and that he showed indicators of his depression leading up to the wedding,” Turnbull said.
Authorities called off a land, water and air search for Moparti after three days.
“Moparti was considered a voluntary missing person. But because of Moparti’s lack of knowledge of the area and his depression, the Sheriff’s Department utilized all resources available in attempts to locate him,” Turnbull said.
Moparti’s daughter, Durga Moparti, and new husband, Rajesh Gutta, couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday. The couple didn’t respond to emails sent through their Linkedin accounts.
On Sunday, his daughter told the CBS affiliate in Sacramento that “it sounded like he was a little depressed and he wanted to go back to India.”
Gutta added that in the days leading up to the wedding, it appeared that Moparti was not “doing well.”
Investigators say they haven’t determined whether Moparti’s died accidentally. “We may never know what happened,” Turnbull said.