This article was originally published in The Examiner on Oct. 6, 2016.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
Port Arthur Police reported a man’s body was recovered from the waterway near Taylor’s Bayou Bridge the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 24.
The body was discovered after the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office received a call at 2:07 p.m. that “a person had gone underwater at the Taylor’s Bayou Bridge on Highway 73 in Port Arthur,” according to a JCSO release.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office responded to the call. Deputies determined at the scene that the man launched a boat that drifted from the dock, then he tried to swim after the boat and disappeared.
“He was launching his boat and the boat came off the trailer,” explained Port Arthur Police Deputy Chief Raymond Clark. “It was not secure and it floated out into the canal.”
Port Arthur Fire Department recovered the body of a 56-year-old man, later identified as Robert George Toupes of Silsbee.
Eleanor Skelton 