Man's Body Pulled From Water at Emerson Point

UPDATE: The body pulled from the Manatee River near Emerson Point today has been tentatively identified as Patrick Mullins, 52.

Mullins went missing after going out in his boat Jan. 27. An autopsy will be performed Wednesday to try and determine the cause of death, as well as to make a positive identification. 

EARLIER TODAY:

A man's body has been recovered from the Manatee River near Emerson Point in Palmetto, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.

The body was found in about three feet of water by a fisherman, according to a sheriff's office spokesperson. The sheriff's Marine Unit responded around 12:50 p.m.

The body has not been identified. Authorities said only that it was a white male.

There was no indication if the body belonged to Patrick Mullins, a Bradenton boater who had gone missing Jan. 27 after he took his 16-foot boat out on the Braden River.

A spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told the Bradenton Herald he did not want to speculate if it might be the body of Mullins, a teacher at Palmetto High.

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