Body Found Near Coronado Islands

A body has been found near the Coronado Islands, but there was no immediate word Monday if it is that of , killing three others.

A fisherman found a man's body about 2:30 p.m. Sunday near the Coronado Islands and the body was handed over to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office, U-T San Diego reported, citing U.S. Coast Guard officials.

Officials would not say if the body is believed to be that of Theo Mavromatis.

Mavromatis, 49, of Redondo Beach, and three other men were taking part in an annual Newport-to-Ensenada race when their 37-foot boat dropped off the event's vessel-tracking system about 1:30 a.m. April 28, according to the Newport Ocean Sailing Association, which stages the competition.

Searchers later that day found the bodies of William R. Johnson Jr., 57, of Torrance, Kevin Rudolph, 53, of Manhattan Beach, and Joseph L. Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, Fla.

Autopsies determined that Johnson and Rudolph died of blunt-force trauma and that Stewart drowned, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its effort to find Mavromatis on April 29.

A floating debris field suggested that Mavromatis' Hunter 376, the Aegean, may have collided with a  larger vessel. The accident occurred just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, about eight miles off the Baja California coast.

The fatalities were the first in the 65-year history of the annual Newport-to-Ensenada race.

-City News Service