Medical examiner identifies victim found in Lake Erie, off Euclid Beach Park

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Cleveland Metroparks police are trying to piece together what happened after the body of a 39-year-old man was found floating in Lake Erie over the weekend.

On Saturday, a person was spotted in the water off Euclid Beach Park. When Cleveland Metroparks police arrived at the park on Lakeshore Blvd. they found the body.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner identified the victim as James Brooks, of Cleveland. His cause of death remains under investigation.

19 News caught up with parkgoers Sunday who were surprised.

“That’s sad,” said park-goer Allen Fletcher. “I feel bad for the family of the people.”

“I’m here every single day Monday through Sunday, but I’ve never had any incidents or issues here and I’ve been coming to this park for about 20 years now,” a woman who did not want to be identified said.

The woman we spoke with said she walks her dog at Euclid Beach every morning, but news like this makes her afraid to come to the park alone.

“I know my husband’s gonna hit the ceiling because he works in the morning so he can’t come with me,” she said.

A little less than a week ago, Metroparks police found the bodies of two missing men in Lake Erie near the East 55th Street Marina about 6 miles away.

In that case, the two men were fishermen, and their fishing poles were found near the water and their car was still running. Police haven’t released any information about the victim in this case yet so there is no telling how this tragedy happened.

“It is alarming,” the woman said. “There are people that fish here year-round so it’s not unusual to see someone out there fishing.”

“I guess you know somebody could fall off the rocks or I haven’t seen any boats out here, so I don’t think they’d be out on a boat,” Fletcher said. “That’s a sad thing.”

Police are still investigating the incident.