WOONSOCKET – Police said 28-year-old Efrain Espinosa was the man found floating face down in the Blackstone River near the South Main Street Bridge shortly after noon on Wednesday, Aug. 5.
Police say they do not suspect foul play in Espinosa’s death. He had been in crisis, according to his family, and had gone missing on Aug. 1. They had been making desperate pleas for help in finding him.
Some area residents said they were appalled at the public commentary about Espinosa’s death. Bonnie Piekarski, of the Milagros Project, decried the comments from people saying they hoped he was a junkie or that he was probably a drug addict, and then worse.
“This individual was loved and in fact his family was searching for him for days. He was struggling with his mental health,” she said. “Have we drifted so far away from our own empathy that we photograph folks and share it to a public forum, before even the family knows?”
Family members had told police that they saw Espinosa again on Aug. 4 around 11:30 p.m., but that he had fled.
Woonsocket police received help from the Woonsocket Fire Department and Cumberland police in recovering Espinosa’s body and delivering him to the medical examiner.
An investigation remains ongoing.
