Pat Collins
Sarath Potharaju was reported missing last week. Pat Collins talked to his family about the shocking discovery.
Body Found Floating in Tidal...
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Missing Man's Family Coming to D.C. After Body Found in Tidal Basin
The family of a missing man is coming to D.C. to see if a body found in the Tidal Basin is him. News4's Jackie Bensen reports.
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A body found floating in the Tidal Basin Thursday was identified as tech engineer Sarath Kumar Potharaju, Potharaju's family confirmed to News4's Pat Collins.
Potharaju died of drowning, the family said. There was no sign of trauma or of foul play, and the family said they don't know how he went into the water.
Potharaju, from Illinois, was in D.C. for contract work and was visiting relatives. As he toured with cousins near the FDR Memorial March 31, Potharaju excused himself to find a restroom, but never returned. His family found his rental car where he parked it near the Old Post Office.
Authorities located his body at 1 a.m. near the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial off West Basin Drive.
Potharaju's uncles will fly his body to India, where his mother wants a chance to see him one more time, Collins reported.
This is the second body to found in water in the past week. A fisherman found the body of another man at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Potomac River between Independence Avenue and Ohio Drive, near a path used by some people seeking to view the cherry blossoms. That man was identified as as Robert Groshan, 63, of Northwest D.C.
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