Police in Rochester, New York, have identified the corpse found in a local reservoir, determining it spent nearly a month inside the water supply before it was discovered.
Despite that, city officials lifted a boil advisory for the area and deemed the water safe to drink.
At a press conference on Thursday, Rochester Mayor Malik Evans said that additional tests had “confirmed the safety of the water supply” and that the boil notice had been lifted for those served by the Highland Park reservoir around 1 a.m. the night before.
“City hall was also affected by the reservoir—we are served by that reservoir. I drank some of the water this morning,” the mayor added.
The boil water advisory had gone into effect on Tuesday after police discovered the body in the reservoir on March 18. The reservoir had been immediately “shut off and bypassed as part of the city’s water distribution system,” Evans said at a Tuesday press conference.
Over the next 24 hours, city officials conducted multiple tests to verify that the water was safe.
“As I have always touted, the quality of our water wins awards regularly. So our water was never in question,” the mayor said.
Police on Thursday identified the body as that of 29-year-old Abdullahi Muya, who had been missing since Feb. 18. He entered the gated area of the reservoir early in the morning on Feb. 24, Evans said, and around 6:30 a.m. slid down the side of the reservoir into the water, where he died.
There was no one else around when Muya died, and authorities did not suspect foul play.
Muya’s body remained in the reservoir for nearly a month, despite a spiked barrier around the perimeter of the reservoir, cameras with heat and motion sensors, and regular personnel patrols.
“This reservoir is extremely deep—15 feet deep—and the body was well below the surface. Reflection waves and shadows at the specific location can obscure the view at the bottom,” Evans said.
The mayor added that the city was working to enhance security of the reservoir to prevent any further “physical breaches” of the site.
This post was originally published on Daily Beast
