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Police ID Second Body Found In Susquehanna River

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Police have identified the second body pulled from the water near the Conowingo Dam on the same day they found the body of missing honor student Phylicia Barnes.

Derek Valcourt explains police say it appears the two deaths are not related.

So far, police say there is no connection and the discovery of the bodies on the same day may be nothing more than a coincidence.

Two bodies were plucked from the Susquehanna on the same day.  Missing honor student Phylicia Barnes was found just north of the Conowingo Dam and now police say fingerprints have helped them identify the body of a man found nearby.  Darryl Harper, 53, lived briefly in Cockeysville and had recently moved to Richmond, Va. with his wife.  She reported him missing earlier this month.

"Investigators do know that Harper had told a relative he threatened suicide.  He said he was going to jump off a bridge," said Greg Shipley, Maryland State Police spokesperson.

Police say Harper checked himself into a hospital in east Pennsylvania that sits right along the Susquehanna.  He has a history of depression and suicide attempts.  His body was found miles away, just south of the Conowingo on the same day as Barnes.  Police say it appears the two deaths are not related.

The identification of Harper's body doesn't help Baltimore Police or the family of Phylicia Barnes, whose body was discovered naked, with no signs of trauma, ending the nearly four-month search for the missing honor student, who vanished while visiting her sister in Northwest Baltimore.

Police have not officially ruled Harper's death a suicide.  The medical examiner is still working to determine the cause of death for both Harper and Barnes.

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