Death of man found in Gallinas ruled an accident
A man and a woman returning from a fishing trip discovered the body floating in the Gallinas River on Sept. 14, 2019.
“They’re not moving or nothing,” the man told a 911 operator. “They’re just floating.”
Under the bridge at Independence Avenue and River Road, down a treed embankment along the Gallinas Riverwalk, the 911 caller led Las Vegas police officers to the body of 33-year-old Joseph A. Untalan.
Las Vegas firefighters were able to pull Untalan to shore, but tragically, he was already dead, according to LVPD incident reports.
Officers determined Untalan’s identity using a photograph and an ID located in a tent at a nearby camp, one that officers had visited weeks earlier. Police had also arrested Untalan on an outstanding warrant on Aug. 29, 2019. Untalan was released from the San Miguel County Detention Center a week later on an unsecured bond.
Police searched the wooded area along the river for nearly two hours, but clues about what happened were scarce. Investigators found no signs that a struggle had taken place; however, a press release issued days later said police were “treating Untalan’s death as suspicious.”
But the Office of the Medical Investigator has ruled Untalan’s death an accidental drowning, according to a recently-released autopsy report. The report further stated that methamphetamine intoxication contributed significantly to his death.
“Methamphetamine intoxication likely altered Mr. Untalan’s ability to seek help or recognize a dangerous situation, and would have made him less able to physically tolerate the effects of decreased oxygen supply to the body, contributing to death,” the report stated.
Untalan’s body was found just four weeks after William “Skip” Smith Jr. was stabbed to death, his body left in an alleyway between 5th Street and 6th Street. In March, Isaac Seig Chavez (listed in some court filings as Seig Isaac Chavez), now 41, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Smith. OMI’s ruling on Untalan’s death suggests the two deaths are not linked.
According to the OMI report, Untalan’s death was consistent with drowning, indicated by “hyperinflation of the lungs, foamy fluid in the airways, swelling of the brain and a large amount of water and silt in the stomach.”
The report concludes that no “significant injuries to explain death” were found, and that Untalan’s death was purely an accident.
“Toxicology analysis … revealed a markedly elevated level of methamphetamine and its breakdown product, amphetamine,” the report concluded. “Based on the available investigative information, autopsy findings and ancillary testing results, the manner of death is best certified as accidental.”
