The PG&E power plant at Salt Springs in Amador County overlooks the area of the Mokelumne River where the body of Steven Sid was found Sunday, Nov. 8. Photo by: Scott Thomas Anderson Sid's badly decomposed remains were located near the stretch of the Mokelumne River pictured here. Photo by: Scott Thomas Anderson

News that a corpse was found in pieces in the Mokelumne River this week threw a shudder into Upcountry residents - and left authorities with grim questions to answer.

At just before 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8, a fisherman made the original gruesome discovery. As he worked his way through broken slabs of granite and pine trees, he found a severed human leg jutting out of the water. It was still wearing a shoe.

The fisherman was in an extremely remote section of the El Dorado National Forest, west of Salt Springs Dam. By truck, he was a full half hour away from Highway 88. He used a radio to call for help.

Detectives from the Amador County Sheriff's Office worked late into the night, removing the leg from the river and searching for other pieces of the corpse. Nightfall brought a temporary halt, though some officers remained at the bottom of the silent, densely wooded canyon to guard the area.

Meanwhile, knowing the leg was found in a part of the river that forms the border between Amador and Calaveras counties, Amador Undersheriff Jim Wegner contacted the neighboring sheriff's department. Not long after daybreak, Amador and Calaveras detectives went up to Salt Springs together to resume the search operation. Detectives from the Stockton Police Department also took part in the operation on the hunch that the remains might be a homicide victim they were looking for.

With a massive dam and power plant to their backs, law enforcement agents fanned out across the rocky terrain. The Mokelumne River is currently low - only 2 to 4 feet deep in many spots near where the leg was recovered - and has a number of boulders and sandbars rising out of it. Detectives soon found the rest of the body in a dry, exposed location that may have been covered by water until last month.

"It was badly decomposed," said Sgt. Dave Seawell of the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office, whose department was cleared to take over the investigation by Amador Sheriff's officials.

An autopsy was performed on Wednesday. According to Calaveras County Sheriff's detectives, the procedure revealed that the remains were that of 52-year-old Steven Sid of Stockton. Sheriff's officials emphasized that the cause of death has not yet been established, but confirmed that "foul play has not been ruled out."

Sid vanished on June 7 while camping along the Mokelumne River not far from where his body was recovered. Stockton homicide detectives took an interest in Sid's disappearance after his van was later found in Stockton. Sid had been camping with a number of individuals who were on parole.

The Calaveras County Sheriff's Office will continue its investigation into the cause of Sid's death.