Body found weeks after 20-year-old kayaker vanished over waterfall, OR cops say
A body has been found weeks after a 20-year-old kayaker vanished over an Oregon waterfall, deputies said.
Authorities responded after 1 p.m. Sunday, May 4, to the Willamette River near Meldrum Bar Park in Gladstone, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
They found a body in “a difficult to reach location along the shoreline,” deputies said.
It’s believed the body belongs to Marcelus Angelo Rodriguez, who was last seen April 12 in Oregon City, deputies said.
Rodriguez had been kayaking on the river at about 10:50 p.m. that night when onlookers saw him “in distress,” McClatchy News reported.
Bystanders then watched as he went over the falls and disappeared, deputies said.
His “blue hard-shell kayak” was found during search efforts at about 7:15 a.m. the next day, deputies said.
Deputies said Rodriguez may not have known the waterfall was there when he went to kayak on the river.
He had been on vacation with his family from Porterville, California, and had gotten to the area the evening he went missing, deputies said.
“We, the family of Marcelus Angelo Rodriguez, are truly devastated by the tragic event that unfolded this past Saturday in the Willamette Falls area, and we would not wish this experience on anyone. Our family is making every effort to heal and come to terms with our loss,” his family previously said in a statement to authorities.
“MARCELUS you were a man of faith. I love you and miss you. You have made a huge impact on everyone you come in contact with,” Tabbie Butler, Rodriguez’s cousin, said in a Facebook post.
“He was the life of the party. so fearless. everyone needs to know Jesus and the freedom that he has for us. that’s what marcelus would want,” his mother, Angela Butler-Rodriguez, wrote.
Willamette Falls is a 42-foot-tall horseshoe-shaped waterfall that is surrounded by a “multi-lift lock and canal system,” according to Oregon.com.
Gladstone is about 2 miles north from Oregon City and about a 10-mile drive southeast from Portland.
This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 8:47 AM with the headline "Body found weeks after 20-year-old kayaker vanished over waterfall, OR cops say."
