PATERSON (AP) -- A body found Friday in the Passaic River appears to be that of a 27-year-old Sussex County man who went missing earlier this month after a canoe he was in capsized on the river in nearby Little Falls.
The father and brother of Joseph Rivera, 27, of Stanhope, tentatively identified the body shortly after it was found around 4 p.m., authorities said. It was discovered by a maintenance worker who was cleaning debris from an intake filter of an electric generating plant near the top of the Great Falls in Paterson.
An autopsy was to be performed sometime this weekend, and authorities said an official identification could be made as early as today.
Rivera was among four people who got into a canoe in the early morning hours of Nov. 12, but they soon turned back toward shore after the river proved too rough. The boat, though, capsized on its way back, dumping all four people into the water. Three men made it to shore.
