Lutcher man floated down Mississippi River

By BEN LUNDIN

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – The body of a Lutcher man floated downstream along the Mississippi River for nineteen days until workers with the Port of South Louisiana retrieved the corpse in Reserve on Friday morning, the St. John Sheriff’s Office reports.

Roosevelt Jenkins, 66, of 2247 Levy Gaudet St., drowned in Gramercy at 6:30 a.m. on March 11 without foul play, according to an autopsy conducted by Hobbson and Brown in St. Tammany, then floated downstream to mile marker 138 of the Mississippi River still wearing his Crescent Ship Service uniform that authorities used to identify him on March 30.

Belle Chasse Marine employees discovered Jenkin’s body at 9 a.m. and called the Port of South Louisiana to report the death.