by Dennis Dalman
A missing kayaker who set out from Sartell for a downriver trip to St. Cloud was discovered – deceased – on June 2 floating in the river near the St. Germain Street bridge that connects east and west S. Cloud.
The body of Donald Richard Worden, 39, of St. Cloud was recovered at 6:20 p.m. after a boater on the Mississippi River called to report he’d seen a body floating near the bridge, according to a press release from the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office.
Worden’s body was transported to the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
Responding to the caller’s report of the body were the St. Cloud Police Department, the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department and the St. Cloud Fire Department. Those agencies worked together to recover the man’s body.
Earlier, the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department had tried to locate the missing man on May 31, June 1 and June 2.
The missing man had been reported on May 31 when a boater on the river reported finding an empty red kayak with nobody in it. The kayaker, it was learned, had launched his watercraft onto the river just behind the Holiday gas station in Sartell. It was also learned that the man had intended to kayak downriver to the Munsinger Gardens area in east St. Cloud.
