Middle-aged man found dead floating in sea

Published on 11/04/2012 00:00

THE body of a middle-aged man has been discovered in the sea off Oban.

The skipper of a visiting yacht made the grim find when the man’s remains floated past his boat yesterday morning.

Ronnie MacKillop, coxswain of Oban RNLI Lifeboat, said: “The skipper of the Ketos had seen the body floating past, at the south end of Cardingmill Bay at Gallanach Road.

“He phoned the coastguard and got into his rubber dinghy to go and get hold of it, in case it sunk or got lost, but he couldn’t recover it so the coastguard alerted the lifeboat.”

The lifeboat recovered the body and handed it over to the police at the lifeboat berth.

Mr MacKillop said the man was clothed, but was not wearing a life jacket.

Chief Inspector Brian Auld said the body was that of a white male, believed to be aged between 45-60.

He added: “We don’t know the identity of the individual, we have got no outstanding missing persons at all and we have also checked with our colleagues in Northern Constabulary.” He added that he did not believe that there were any suspicious circumstances.

The discovery came after someone reported having seen a body in the sea near Oban War Memorial on Monday night.

CRAIG BROWN