[08/08/01] A Texas man working in the Eagle Lake area was electrocuted Tuesday afternoon while working beneath a mobile home.

Isaac Gonzalez Rodriguez Jr., 64, of Nordheim, Texas, was trying to replace a leaking pipe around 3:20 when he was fatally injured, Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said.

“One of his companions that had been working with him heard him scream out and then silence,” Pace said.

Rodriguez, who has worked on farms in the Eagle Lake area during the summers for the past five years, was staying in the mobile home at 13245 Highway 465 with other farm workers. Pace said the first emergency responders to reach the victim, Deputies Mike Traxler and John Elfer and Detective Johnny Beachamp, found Rodriguez lifeless.

Pace said efforts were made to revive the man, but that by the time emergency rescue personnel arrived from the Vicksburg Fire Department, it was too late.

Warren County Coroner John Thomason said an autopsy was performed Tuesday night at Mississippi Mortuary Service. No abnormality of the heart was found and the cause of death was determined to be consistent with electrocution, Thomason said. The death was ruled accidental, he said.

“The initial investigation indicates that there is a frayed or damaged electrical wire that came in contact with a piece of the metal frame,” Pace said.

He said Rodriguez was on a mat on the ground close to water. Pace said they believe that the electricity came into contact with the water.