Update, April 18: The Alameda County coroner’s office has identified the deceased woman as 52-year-old Sophonia McLendon of El Cerrito. Her cause of death remains pending, authorities said.
City police opened an investigation after McLendon was found April 10. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office’s Coroner’s Bureau will be in charge of the autopsy. An update on the city police investigation was not immediately available.
Original story: Police are investigating after a body was found floating against the rocks at the south end of Seawall Drive at the Berkeley Marina.
A caller first reported the body around 6:49 p.m. Monday, Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Jessica Perry said in an email.
Officers found the female victim near the shuttered Hs Lordships Restaurant. City firefighters “retrieved the body from the water” and “began life-saving measures with negative results, and the victim was pronounced dead at the scene,” Perry said.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Office took the body for examination and police are conducting a death investigation, Perry said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the victim had not been identified. Her cause and manner of death were not available.
