Body pulled from pond near homeless camp in Maplewood

Ramsey County sheriff’s deputies have recovered a man’s body from a pond near a homeless camp in Maplewood.

The sheriff's office said deputies responded at 7 p.m. Thursday to the pond near the Maplewood Library after a 911 caller reported finding a body there. Officers recovered the body and turned it over to the Ramsey County medical examiner.

Deputies had gone to the same location at 4 a.m. Tuesday after hearing that a person from the homeless camp went underwater in the pond and did not resurface. Authorities searched the pond Tuesday but could not find a body.

Bradley Smith, the owner and co-founder of Wings of Hope Search and Rescue, a volunteer organization that helps recover drowning victims, said Maplewood police asked for help with the search because of the challenging conditions.

"Basically the pond was very muddy, murky, lot of vegetation and overgrowth, actually has two layers of settlement, which are about four to five feet thick,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, the gentleman went in and it was very hard to locate him in the settlement. So it made it very, very difficult situation."

Smith says they used a remote underwater vehicle to locate the man.

The medical examiner will release the victim’s name and cause of death.

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