Though his face and hands had been damaged by the water, positive identification was made by a gold ring through his belly button. On June 4, a passenger aboard the American Queen riverboat saw something caught in a tangle of branches floating in the Mississippi. Maybe he wanted to escape the pressures of recording his second album. Jeff had a habit of disappearing for days at a time. In the days following his disappearance, many of Buckley’s friends refused to believe he had drowned. Three hours later, there was still no sign of Jeff Buckley. Within 30 minutes a full search was underway-patrol boats, scuba divers and helicopters fitted with searchlights and heat-imaging equipment. He screamed for help for 10 minutes before a marina worker nearby heard him and called 911. Foti reached down to move his boombox and when he looked back up a second later, he’d lost sight of Jeff. The water was getting choppy, lapping at the shoreline. Again, Foti called out to Jeff and watched as his friend swam clear of the boat. He started to swim with purpose toward the Mud Island side of the Wolf. Jeff had been in the water for nearly 15 minutes. Then Jeff began to sing “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin, joking about how the echo in the harbor made his voice sound like Robert Plant’s. He said something to his friend about “The first one being fun, but the second one … ” Foti didn’t know what he meant. As he eased into the water, he started doing the backstroke. He didn’t bother to remove his white T-shirt, jeans or black combat boots.įoti said, “What are you doing, man?” But Jeff didn’t pay attention. As Foti stayed at the water’s edge, Buckley waded in. The shoreline was littered with sharp rocks and broken bottles. A few yards downriver from a bridge that connects to a peninsula known as Mud Island was a spot where Buckley said he had swum before. Memphians know that the Wolf has claimed many drowning victims.įoti, a New York hairdresser who dabbled in songwriting, had brought along his acoustic guitar and boombox that night. But with its intersection to the Mississippi, the undercurrents can be deceptive. With its slowly rippling water, the Wolf resembles a lake more than a river. The Wolf River is a tributary of the Mississippi River. Why don’t we go down to the river for a while?” As Foti and Buckley entered downtown, an area more familiar to Jeff, he asked his friend if he wanted to go for ribs. What should have been a 10-minute drive turned into an hour-long search through neighborhoods that all began to look the same.īuckley thought of calling his tour manager Gene Bowen for directions, but Bowen was on his way to the Memphis airport to pick up the members of Jeff’s band. For the past two months, Buckley, 30, had been living in Memphis. They were on the eve of recording material for the singer’s follow-up to his highly acclaimed debut Grace. The two friends had set out in a van for a rehearsal space that Buckley’s band was renting.
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