The man whose body was pulled from Tempe Town Lake Friday, tentatively identified as Willie Jigba, probably died of drowning and not foul play, according to preliminary findings by the Marciopa County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The final cause of death will be determined after toxicology reports are completed, Tempe police said.
The Medical Examiner is awaiting dental records to make a positive identification, said Tempe Police Sgt. Steve Carbajal.
Carbajal said the police are still looking into the cause of the death of Jigba, 24, who had been missing two weeks before his body was found.
“However, there is nothing to suggest the death is a result of foul play,” Carbajal said in a press release.
Authorities had searched the lake for two days before calling off the search for the 6-foot, beloved Jigba in the 40-45 degree water Thursday night.
A member of the dive team decided to return to the lake Friday morning and discovered the body floating on the surface, just outside the original search area on the north side of the lake.
Jigba was not an Arizona State University student, but he lived in Tempe and had friends who attend the university. A friend said the night Jigba disappeared has all the makings of a typical student’s life.
He’d gone to a Tempe party, the party was broken up by Tempe police in the wee hours of the morning, his cell phone died, and he didn’t have money for a cab or a ride home, she said.
Vigils were held for Jigba Thursday night in Tempe and in San Jose, Calif., where he graduated from Leland High School in 2005.
A friend said Jigba had worked as a server at Applebee’s in Mesa but was starting a new job at Kona Grill the day he went missing.
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