Body believed to be missing Enon fisherman found in river near Colonial Heights park

Bill Atkinson, The Progress-Index
·1 min read
In this photo from March 23, rescue crews are seen at Roslyn Landing Park in Colonial Heights searching for a man who jumped off the boat pier into the Appomattox River and never resurfaced. On March 31, rescue personnel discovered a body matching the description of the missing man several hundred yards north of where he was last seen.
In this photo from March 23, rescue crews are seen at Roslyn Landing Park in Colonial Heights searching for a man who jumped off the boat pier into the Appomattox River and never resurfaced. On March 31, rescue personnel discovered a body matching the description of the missing man several hundred yards north of where he was last seen.

COLONIAL HEIGHTS — Authorities believe they may have found the body of the man last seen jumping into the Appomattox River from a city park nine days ago.

Interim Police Chief Robert Ruxer said the discovery was made Thursday several hundred yards north of the boat ramp at Roslyn Landing, where witnesses reported seeing 34-year-old Caleb Lubrun of Enon dive off the boat pier shortly after 8 p.m. March 22. Lubrun, clad only in a pair of shorts, was fishing with relatives at the park when he jumped into the water from the pier three times. After the third jump, he did not resurface.

Authorities stopped short of positively identifying the body as that of Lubrun, Ruxer said someone "matching Mr. Lubrun's description" was located by city fire and rescue teams. Chesterfield emergency personnel helped Colonial Heights retrieve the body from where it was found, and it was taken to the state medical examiner's office in Richmond for positive identification and to determine the cause of death.

The Virginia State Police and dive crews from Chesterfield County helped search for Lubrun in the immediate hours following his disappearance. More than 12 hours after he was last seen, authorities switched the search mission from rescue to recovery.

In subsequent days, Colonial Heights fire and rescue crews scouted the river and its banks trying to locate Lubrun's body. They were out on the water for about 90 minutes Thursday when they made the discovery.

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Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is a journalist and daily news coach for USA TODAY's Southeast Region-Unified Central, which includes Virginia, West Virginia and central North Carolina. He is based in Petersburg, Virginia. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Colonial Heights believes it may have found body of missing Enon man