Body found in search of missing boater on San Jacinto River

Authorities have located the body of a man Tuesday morning believed to be that of a missing boater who was thrown overboard in a crash Sunday on the San Jacinto River in east Harris County.

A Texas Parks & Wildlife game warden discovered the body about 6 a.m., said Eric Minter, a captain with the agency. The body fit the description of the person reported missing from the crash, he said.

“I feel certain that our search is complete,” Minter said. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences will identify the man.

He had been missing after a 20-foot pleasure craft slammed into a retaining wall at full speed near Rio Villa Drive and Sandbridge Court in the Highlands area, according to Harris County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Senior Deputy Thomas Gilliland. A man and woman who were on the boat were taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The injured man, later identified as 41-year-old Galan Ruiz, was airlifted with serious injuries to his head and leg, while the woman, Ruiz’s girlfriend, was listed in stable condition, officials said.

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A third person, who was thrown from the boat, is believed to be boater whose body was recovered Tuesday.

Ruiz is expected to face an intoxicated assault charge for his injured girlfriend, and will likely face a first-degree felony murder charge, according to Sean Teare, Vehicular Crimes Division chief at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Ruiz is expected to face a murder charge rather than the usual intoxicated manslaughter since the boat crash would be his third alcohol-related offense, Teare said. He was convicted of driving while intoxicated in Dallas County in 2001 and again in Harris County in 2013, court records show.

Minter said game wardens will be particularly busy this Fourth of July holiday as well as the weekend as boaters take to the waterways. The crash remains under investigation, he added.

“It’ll be a long weekend for us,” he said, “trying to prevent things like this.”

Nicole Hensley and Godofredo A. Vasquez contributed to this report.