Drowned man's body discovered — twice

NEAR ZAPATA — Authorities said Thursday they recovered the body of a drowned Sullivan City man for the second time.

A fisherman discovered Margarito Alaniz's body floating in the International Falcon Reservoir about 150 yards from where the boat Alaniz was riding in capsized Jan. 27.

The discovery contradicts previous reports that Mexican authorities had recovered Alaniz's body in the Rio Grande - more than 50 miles downstream - less than three days after he drowned, said Capt. Fernando Cervantes of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department office in Zapata.

"It's impossible for it to have happened," Cervantes said of the Jan. 30 report that Alaniz's body was recovered in the Rio Grande near Valdeces, Tamps., across the border from La Grulla. "It was too short of a time."

That, and the hydroelectric dam at the end of the reservoir could prove difficult for a man's body to pass through unscathed, said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez.

"A 4- or 5-inch fish may make it through there without being shredded to pieces," Gonzalez said. "But a body would never make it."

A fisherman discovered the body of the 36-year-old man about 9:30 a.m. Thursday near "Tiger Island," a small island in the lake, about eight miles upstream from the dam, at the southeast end of the reservoir.

Authorities have ordered an autopsy of Alaniz's body, but there are no visible signs of trauma, said Capt. Aaron Sanchez of the Zapata County Sheriff's Office.

No information was immediately available about the body first identified as Alaniz that was discovered Jan. 30.

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.