SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — The San Diego Medical Examiner's Office is working Monday to identify a body that was found a few miles off the coast of La Jolla.
Mariners on a private boat reported seeing the corpse floating in the water around 7:30 Sunday morning about two-and-a-half miles from the shore.
"Its condition is consistent with having been in water for some time," said San Diego Police Lt. Charles Lara. "This person is going to be cared for as a John Doe, because we don't have him conclusively identified as of yet. We're going to work closely with the medical examiner."
Lifeguards responded to the area and retrieved the body of an unknown man. Authorities would not say if the body could be that of Taylor Watts, a 27-year-old singer who went missing after falling off Pacific Beach's Crystal Pier on January 21st.
Witnesses say Watts hit his head and never resurfaced.
Lifeguards spent days searching the waters off Mission and Pacific beaches, but were unable to find him as his family watched from shore.
"Obviously, any similarities or identifying marks they are going to be looking close at, but we're not going to say conclusively that this is Taylor," said Lt. Lara. "We're working with the medical examiner's office to make that determination."
In the weeks since Watts' disappearance, his record label released a cover video recorded before his death and pledged to release more songs in the near future.
First responders stressed it is too soon to know if the body found Sunday is Watts.
"Whomever this ends up being, somewhere there's a family that's not whole," Lt. Lara said. "But what we'll do is bring closure to someone, whose ever family this is. Being able to know conclusively what happened to their loved one."
A description of the body and its condition were not released.
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