The man who drowned while swimming in the Kern River has been identified as 19-year-old Leonardo Nunez of Bakersfield. He disappeared below the surface Friday morning about three miles east of the mouth of the Kern River Canyon. The body was recovered later in the day near the spot he went under after being held there by turbulence in the river. Nunez was the third 19-year-old to die in that same spot in the past two years.

Sean Michael Lisle