{"id":50708,"date":"2020-10-29T20:56:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T02:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/missing-cortez-man-found-dead-in-arizona\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:52:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:52:36","slug":"missing-cortez-man-found-dead-in-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/missing-cortez-man-found-dead-in-arizona\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing Cortez man found dead in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Cortez man who was reported missing has been found dead in northern Arizona, according to Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin.<\/p>\n

The body of Ocean Christopher Rodd, 23, was discovered on Oct. 22 near a road between Kayenta and Tuba City on the Navajo Reservation.<\/p>\n

The case was investigated by the FBI, Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Cortez Police Department and Navajo Nation Police Department.<\/p>\n

No foul play is suspected in the death, according to Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin.<\/p>\n

According to a Oct. 23 Sheriff\u2019s Office report, \u201cthe death may be listed as undetermined by the medical examiner.\u201d No signs of trauma or possible injury were found.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is believed possible that death was due to possible heat exhaustion\/stroke because of dehydration,\u201d according to the sheriff report. The time of death was undetermined.<\/p>\n

Rodd had been reported missing by his family, and he was listed in the national missing persons data base Aug. 17, according a Cortez Police Department report. People he contacts regularly had not heard from him for a while.<\/p>\n

The Aztec Police had reported seeing Rodd on July 28, according to the Cortez Police Department.<\/p>\n

Rodd was a suspect in a Ford F-150 pickup truck allegedly stolen from a RV Park in Montezuma County Aug. 3, according to a sheriff report.<\/p>\n

The stolen truck was found several miles from where Rodd was found in Arizona, and had been driven into a deep wash where it was stuck and partially buried.<\/p>\n

The case remains under investigation, according to the Cortez Police Department.<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe page<\/a> has been set up for Rodd to raise funding for funeral costs and to support his one-year old young son, Karston.<\/p>\n

\u201cOcean was one of a kind and loved by so many,\u201d states the GoFundMe memorial. \u201cThe sudden and unexpected loss of Ocean Rodd has left his family completely heartbroken. A life taken too soon. Ocean\u2019s memory will live on in the eyes of his little boy. We all know he has a bright future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funds raised beyond what is necessary for the memorial service will be reserved to support Karston and his education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exposure is suspected cause, sheriff said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,255,13,28,60,1655,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-death-and-dying","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-navajo-nation","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87809,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50708\/revisions\/87809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50708"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}