This is a developing situation. Updated information will be published at the top of this article.
UPDATED 1:55 p.m., 12/23/24 — A body found under Noyo River Bridge Monday morning was wearing jewelry that belonged to missing teen Roy Mora, a press release from the Fort Bragg Police Department said. Police said the body was not identifiable otherwise. (Continue reading here)
FORT BRAGG, CA., 12/23/24 — A body was found washed ashore in the Noyo Harbor area of Fort Bragg on Monday morning, but officials haven’t released any information on whether it could be a local teen reported missing earlier this month.
Firefighters, along with the U.S. Coast Guard and local police responded after the body was found about 8:20 a.m. on the south side of the harbor, just west of the Noyo River Bridge, Fort Bragg Fire Chief Steve Orsi said.
The the body was taken to the Coast Guard Station on Harbor Drive, the chief said. No identification or a cause of death have been released.
Fort Bragg resident Roy Mora, 15, was reported missing on Dec. 8, after he didn’t return from attending the Fort Bragg Lighted Truck Parade the previous evening.
Nothing so far has led police to suspect foul play, Fort Bragg Police Chief Neil Cervenka said in an email interview on Dec. 16.
Mora’s phone was found on the Noyo River Bridge the night the teen disappeared, police said. The man who found it said it was lying on the sidewalk in the middle of the bridge. On Dec. 17, he surrendered the phone to a local coffee shop. Police are not disclosing the man’s name.
The phone was turned off at the end of the Lighted Truck Parade at 6:55 p.m. Dec.7. Then a surveillance camera shows Mora walking south on the east side of the Noyo Bridge at 7:49 p.m., according to police.
“Two surveillance cameras on the south side of the Noyo Bridge were checked, and neither shows Roy leaving the bridge,” according to a Fort Bragg police press release. “No other surveillance camera has captured video of Roy after 7:49 p.m.. Also, the cameras did not capture anyone else on foot on the bridge or any vehicles stopping on the bridge during that time.”
Police said the man who found the teen’s phone “has been exceptionally cooperative, consenting to a search of his vehicle, property and person as well as allowing officers to take his phone so all location data from it could be examined.”
Roy Mora is described as being 5 feet 6 inches tall, with a thin build. He was last seen wearing a dark blue T-shirt with the Mendocino College logo in white writing, denim jeans, and white shoes. Mora may also be wearing a dark blue sweatshirt and round-rim glasses.