Unalaska, AK – The body found in Udagak Bay last month has been positively identified as the fishing processor who disappeared off the Northern Victor in February.

State Medical Examiner Franc Fallico says his office made the match this week after a search effort by investigators from his office and the Alaska State Troopers turned up dental records for 23-year-old Joseph Arop in Amarillo, Texas. Arop had immigrated to Texas from Sudan before moving to Seattle and taking a job as a processor on Icicle Seafoods' Northern Victor.

Arop was reported missing from the vessel on February 1, and divers found his body on April 13 near where the Northern Victor had been anchored in Unalaska Island's Udagak Bay. Fallico said the cause of death was definitely a drowning, although how Arop ended up in the water in the first place remains unclear.

The positive ID means that Arop's body can be released to his family. His relatives in Washington couldn't be reached for comment this week, but Chobany Juac, a friend and former roommate of Arop's in Seattle, said that the family is trying to raise enough money to bring the body back to Arop's hometown of Abiye in southern Sudan for burial.

Juac said that donations to that effort can be sent to the Joseph Arop Memorial Fund, 3514 180th St., Apt. H-14, Sea-Tac, WA 98188.