Crime scene units descended on the Mayport Boat Ramp Tuesday morning after a body was pulled from the water at the mouth of the St. Johns River. Two Jacksonville Sheriff's Office crime scene vans and several detective vehicles lined the busy municipal launch site as investigators worked the scene alongside the medical examiner's office, which was also present.
As reported by News4JAX, which had a crew on scene, what appeared to be a body bag was seen being placed on a stretcher and then moved to a nearby van. JSO said the incident is being investigated as an undetermined death, and crews had begun clearing out by 12:30 p.m. The station's report remains a developing story, and no further details on the identity of the deceased or the circumstances of the death have been released.
A Busy, Dangerous Stretch of the St. Johns
The Michael B. Scanlan Mayport Boat Ramp at 4870 Ocean Street is a 24-hour municipal facility run by the City of Jacksonville, and it serves as Duval County's primary launch point for large, offshore-bound vessels near where the river meets the Atlantic.
It is also a site with a recent, unsettling track record. Just three days before Tuesday's recovery, first responders rescued an SUV driver from the river after the vehicle crashed through a nearby private gate and plunged into the water near the same boat ramp, according to Action News Jax. That driver was hospitalized after the vehicle struck a boat and went under.
The area has seen other dramatic incidents as well. In August 2025, JSO officers shot and killed an armed suspect near Mayport Road after an episode that began at a local boat ramp, where a fishing couple had disarmed a man who was shooting a rifle into the water, per the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. That suspect reportedly rammed vehicles before the fatal standoff that followed.
Why Officials Call It an Undetermined Death
JSO's classification of Tuesday's discovery as an undetermined death is not a casual label — it triggers a specific legal process. Under Florida Statute § 406.11, district medical examiners are required to perform autopsies and forensic investigations for any death occurring under suspicious, unusual, unattended, or violent circumstances, according to the Online Sunshine statute database.
A January News4JAX report described a new Medical Examiner's Office as addressing morgue overflow and community concerns.
Not the First Body Found at a Duval Boat Ramp
Tuesday's recovery echoes a case from January 2025, when JSO detectives investigated human remains found at another Duval County boat launch, Half Moon Island Park on North Main Street. In that incident, foul play was not suspected, and investigators sought the public's help identifying the deceased, according to Action News Jax.
Hoodline has also covered a body found downtown in the St. Johns River in July, which JSO likewise investigated as an undetermined death, and reported on a woman found dead along Goodby's Creek behind a Jacksonville Hooters the same month, pending medical examiner findings.
The Mayport Inlet
The Mayport inlet is where the St. Johns River empties into the Atlantic.
Those hazards fit into a broader statewide pattern. Florida recorded 694 reportable recreational boating accidents resulting in 51 fatalities in 2025, with drowning identified as the cause of death in more than half of those, state wildlife officials reported in May, per Jacksonville Today. Locally, JSO's Marine Unit patrols roughly 75 square miles of navigable waterways across Duval County and responded to nearly 1,000 calls for service last year, the same outlet reported.
As of Tuesday, JSO has not released the identity of the person found at Mayport or a cause of death, leaving the case open pending the medical examiner's findings.
