Wyoming Authorities ID Man Who Presumably Drowned in Riverton Ditch
RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a 33-year-old man who is thought to have drowned after he ended up in an irrigation ditch in Riverton.
A woman told investigators she saw Joseph Atkin, of Lander, standing near the edge of the water before she went back inside her home Tuesday night. After she heard some kind of commotion, she went outside and the man was no longer there.
Atkin's body was found about a mile and a half downstream.
Water in the drainage ditch began to rise mid-afternoon Tuesday and washed over two culverts and a private bridge in the area a short time later.
An autopsy that was planned in Colorado on Thursday has been postponed because of inclement weather.