Body found in Santa Ana River in Huntington Beach identified

A man whose body was discovered floating in a portion of the Santa Ana Riverbed in Huntington Beach on Jan. 4 has been identified as 53-year-old Paul Lupien, a sheriff’s spokesman confirmed Monday.

Sgt. Todd Hylton said the coroner’s office notified Lupien’s next of kin after his body was retrieved from the river, just north of the Pacific Coast Highway overpass, with the help of teams from Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa fire departments.

An Orange County Fire Authority Swiftwater Flood Search & Rescue near where a body was found in the Santa Ana River Jan. 4. The body was identified as belonging to 53-year-old Paul Lupien, police said Monday.

(File Photo)

Responders arrived on scene at that portion of the river after receiving a call at around noon that day from someone who’d seen something suspicious in the water, Hylton reported at the time of the discovery. A retrieval team used a boat to fetch the body from swiftly moving waters.

Lupien was described as having no fixed address, Hylton said Monday. It is unclear whether or not the body may have been the remains of an individual who was swept up by the river current the morning of Dec. 24 and became the subject of an hours-long search by multiple agencies.

The search and rescue effort, which began shortly after 7 a.m., was called off at around 2:30 p.m. that day, when responders were unable to locate the individual, according to Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue officials.

Responders on scene at the Santa Ana River Jan. 4, after a call of a human body floating in the water was made.

(Courtesy of Orange County Sheriff’s Department)

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