Missing man located on beach likely suicide

Yesterday, St Johns County deputies believe a 58 year-old Jacksonville man chose to end his own life — he was found in a lounge chair on the beach, facing the Atlantic Ocean, the apparent victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Deputies responded to a call received Saturday afternoon, reporting what the informant believed was a human body on a beach chair along South Ponte Vedra Beach; according to a report received from Chuck Mulligan, Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer.

Investigators located the body on the beach across from Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, the report said. “It’s in an area of the beach where there are not many homes,” Mulligan told Historic City News reporters. “The man was listed as missing-endangered by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.”

Although detectives on the scene believe the manner of death is suicide, the official cause and manner of death will be determined at the conclusion of the medical examiners investigation.