Authorities have confirmed the identity of a body found in the Flathead River near the dam in Polson.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Richard Mitchell, 23, of Minatare, Nebraska, drowned in the river on May 31. Mitchell fell into the fast-moving water just below the SKQ Dam on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Authorities say he and others had hiked down to an overlook area and continued past posted boundaries.
The Montana State Crime Lab conducted an autopsy of the body and determined the cause of death.
A fisherman spotted the body in late JUne in a section of the river called the Big Bend, which is west of Ronan and about 17 river miles from the dam.