A man's body discovered floating in the Port of LA Saturday may be linked to the disappearance of a Gardena man days before, police said.
LA Port police received a 911 call about a body floating in the marina at 9:10 a.m.
"When I arrived...police were coming behind me in vehicles and they were rapidly going down the dock," said Ty Brooks, who lives at the marina. "Apparently there was a body diagonal from my boat and it was floating."
He said when they pulled the body from the water, it appeared to be a "very large man" 7 feet or taller, but police later said that the man was around 6 feet tall.
"It's upsetting to find a body in front of your boat," he said.
Two Los Angeles Fire Department boats and Los Angeles Police Department officers assisted until the coroner could arrive.
"Based on our investigation, the clothing description and physical description, this could possible related to man who went into the water earlier in the week in Gardena, however there's no identification on the body at this point," LA Port police Lt. Ken Hawkes said.
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Police said they believe the man could be the person who was spotted in the wash near the 1200 block of Cassidy Street Thursday.
A two-and-a-half hour search Thursday for the man was spurred by a report from a woman saying her friend might be in the rain-swollen Dominguez Channel, fire officials said.
After the search was called off, Gardena police reclassified it as a missing persons case.
The body was partially clothed, and not yet decomposed, but had spent some time in the water, Hawkes said.
