A 58-year-old man was found dead on his sailboat Oct. 14 in the Bradenton Beach anchorage, south of the Historic Bridge Street Pier.
John E. Deal, a man known to many in Bradenton Beach as “Doc Brown,” had lived on the 27-foot Catalina boat for many years and a long time with an untreated broken ankle, according to Bradenton Beach Police Detective Sgt. Lenard Diaz.
BBPD boarded Deal’s boat about 11:15 a.m. with Manatee County crime technician Kelsey Belloise.
After returning to shore, Diaz said Deal’s death appeared to be from natural causes.
The medical examiner’s office said Oct. 17 that Deal’s cause of death was still being investigated.
The body was found in the boat’s cabin behind plastic windows where he may have died several days earlier, Diaz said.
Manatee County Animal Services Officer Steve Bell first found the body at about 9:15 a.m. after BBPD called MCAS to check on the welfare of two Chihuahuas — one that appeared to be aggressive, according to a police report.
During an Oct. 12 nighttime police inspection of some 42 boats in the anchorage, BBPD Officer Eric Hill saw the dogs on Deal’s boat and reported the boat smelled of dog feces.
MCAS enforcement supervisor Joel Richmond said Oct. 16 the dogs were at the Palmetto shelter and they are healthy, but not up for adoption.
He said MCAS is working with people from a rescue group who knew the deceased and the rescue would be taking the dogs and looking out for their welfare.