St. Tammany Coroner Dr. Charles Preston positively identified the man whose body was recovered from Lake Pontchartrain yesterday.
62 YO Rick Hodgson of Rhonda Road in Pearl River was recovered after a multi-agency search.
An autopsy will be conducted today, after which Preston will make formal rulings on cause and manner of death.
The US Coast Guard recovered the body when they located a capsized boat near the Twin Spans. They found one man alive but injured, and the other deceased.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has jurisdiction over the investigation. Agents have learned that Hodgson and another passenger were trawling for shrimp in Lake Pontchartrain near the Twin Spans when their trawl was stuck around midnight. Hodgson and the other boater tried to get it unstuck when the boat capsized putting both men into the water without wearing personal flotation devices.
LDWF was assisted by the Coast Guard, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office and Slidell Police Department in recovering Hodgson’s remains.
