With the help of a rafting outfit, authorities have recovered the body of 46-year-old David Bartecchi of Colorado, who fell into the Rogue River and drowned while trying to free a stuck raft Sept. 28, according to the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office reported Wednesday that Bartecchi’s body was found Monday between Upper and Lower Washboard Rapids on the Rogue River, about 2 miles below Wildcat Rapids, where he fell in.

Orange Torpedo Trips, an outfitter located in Merlin, volunteered to recover the body and take it 2 miles downriver to Black Bar Lodge, where lodge staff and Hull and Hull Funeral Directors provided additional help.

Bartecchi, who was wearing a life jacket, had slipped on a rock, fell into swift-moving water, went under the surface and got his foot and leg stuck between two large rocks, according to marine deputy Kyle Wolfe. Several people in Bartecchi’s group attempted to pull him out, but were unable to do so because of the pressure of the water.

Rescue workers with the sheriff’s office, county Search and Rescue and the Bureau of Land Management set up rope systems and maneuvered a rescue team in a raft upriver to retrieve the body from between the rocks, but swift water and slick rocks hampered efforts, including efforts to use long poles and ropes to recover the body. The swift water eventually pulled Bartecchi’s body under the rock and downriver.

Bartecchi was the executive director of Village Earth, an educational organization in Fort Collins, Colorado, and co-founder of Native Lands Advocacy Project, according to a social media post by Sebastian Africano, executive director of Trees, Water & People, of Fort Collins.

At least five other people have died in Rogue River incidents this year, according to sheriff’s departments in Josephine and Jackson counties:

• Lynn Boyum, 68, and her husband, Danny Boyum, 72, both of Grants Pass, died May 12 at Indian Mary Park in Josephine County when she tried to retrieve a dog that swam across the river. She became overwhelmed in the swift water, as did her husband when he tried to help her.

• Darrin Kazlauskas, 58, of McMinnville died July 20 when his kayak flipped and he suffered a “medical event” during a guided tour of Hellgate Canyon in Josephine County.

• The body of Michael A. Turcotte, 52, of Jackson County was found Sept. 7 by fishermen in the 5600 block of Foothill Boulevard, downstream from the city of Rogue River. He had drowned.

• A 69-year-old man drowned Sept. 12 after the raft he was riding in during a guided trip flipped at Ti’lomikh Falls near Gold Hill. The name of the deceased has not been released.