KENNEWICK — Investigators believe a Pendleton man found dead on Friday, May 14, in the Columbia River accidentally drowned.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office wrapped up an autopsy on Oscar Castaneda last week, and concluded he wasn’t injured before he went into the river, slightly upstream of the Lampson hydroplane pits in Kennewick, Benton County Coroner Bill Leach said.

While everything indicates he died from drowning, the coroner’s office is performing blood tests to make sure he wasn’t under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Leach said.

“At this point, it’s looking like an accident,” he said. “They just want to make sure there isn’t any underlying intoxicants.”

While the coroner’s office didn’t initially plan for an autopsy, it now wants to make sure foul play was not involved.

No more information has been released about what Castaneda, 29, was doing in Columbia Park overnight. Castaneda was fully clothed, so it didn’t appear that he was swimming. He lived in Pendleton, but had family in Pasco.

A woman reported seeing what appeared to be a body or a mannequin in the river at 8:15 a.m. on May 14 and called police.

When they arrived, they found Casteneda’s body floating near the east end pits where Columbia Basin Dive Rescue divers helped take him out of the water.

The river was 50 degrees, and people can become quickly overcome by the cold, explained Scott Ruppelius, dive rescue’s public information officer.

A GoFundMe account was set up to help with funeral expenses for the family.

“We lost a very special person in this world physically, but we will always have great memories of him in our hearts,” organizer Rosana Villalpando wrote. “I appreciate any help you can give the Castaneda Torres family.”

According to Facebook posts from his fiancee, they were expecting their first child together in September.