Tuesday, Jul. 07, 2009

Body found near Mississippi River identified as East St. Louis man

A body discovered Sunday morning along the Mississippi River near the Casino Queen was identified Tuesday evening as that of a 46-year-old East St. Louis man who had been reported missing by his family.

St. Clair county Coroner Rick Stone identified the badly decomposed body as that of Nathaniel Smith, of 1326 N. 41st St. in East St. Louis.

Smith's sister, Clara Smith, filed a missing person's report June 17about her brother with East St. Louis Police. At that time, she told a reporter that the family, including Smith's children, had not seen him for a couple of weeks. She said her brother lived at 1829 Second Ave. in Fairview Heights, but frequented East St. Louis and Washington Park.

Clara Smith said it was very unusual for Nathaniel Smith not to contact the family. He sounded a little strange to her when he called her June 17, but there was no indication that he was suicidal, she said.

Also during the interview in last month, Smith said her brother was last known to be wearing orange shorts and an orange and white stripe shirt.

Police confirmed that the body was clothed in orange shorts and an orange and white striped shirt when it was found about 9:45 a.m. Sunday by some fishermen.

Smith's badly decomposed body was found on Front Street behind the casino. He was pronounced dead at 10:50 a.m. Stone said.

A cause of death has yet to be determined.

"Due to the decomposition, we were unable to determine the cause of death," Stone said.

Right now, Smith's death is being treated as suspicious, Stone said.

"As soon as we get enough information, we might determine that it's something else," Stone said.

Washington Park Police Detective Kim McAfee said Smith was the first person he met when he moved to East St. Louis in 1997. He described Smith as a quiet, family man who stayed to himself.

McAfee said he was shocked by Smith's death.

"I couldn't imagine him doing anything to himself or anyone hurting him because he was not a violent person," he said. "My prayers go out to his family."