Calif. drowning linked to rapture prediction

ANTIOCH, Calif. - Investigators say a Florida man who drowned in a Northern California reservoir insisted that God was on the other side and tried twice to get across even though he could not swim.

The body of 25-year-old Victor Frasno was pulled from the 80-acre reservoir in Antioch's Contra Loma Regional Park on Friday night. The Contra Costa Times reports that his body was recovered just minutes after the first of a series of world-ending earthquakes were supposed to have begun, according to radio evangelist's Rapture prediction.

According to park police, Frasno jumped in the water twice after returning to the park with his brother and sister-in-law that evening.

He apparently insisted that he and his brother were chosen to speak to God and pulled his brother into the water the second time.

Detective Holly Sontag tells the Times Frasno was last seen quoting the Bible and flailing in the water.

"A brief struggle ensued, but they all managed to get out of the water," Sontag told the newspaper. "At that point it became a tug-of-war."

She says his behavior may be connected to a California preacher's prediction that the world would end on Saturday.

"I believe it probably had something to do with the rapture because this wasn't his normal behavior," Sontag told the newspaper.