The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office has identified the man whose body washed ashore in Long Beach, last week, as 21-year-old Juan Barrios from Pico Rivera.

His younger sister, Alondra Barrios, said her brother went missing on Oct. 5. The family began the process of filing a missing person’s report and reached out to Juan’s friends and anyone they could think of but couldn’t find him, his nephew Jonathan Villa said.

Villa said Juan was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder which he had struggled with most of his life.

“But this time he actually called everyone to say his goodbyes—that was different,” he said. They suspect his death was a suicide.

The family got word two days after he went missing that Juan’s car was found in a parking lot near Seal Beach. Authorities reported it because it had accumulated multiple parking citations from staying over the weekend, Alondra said.

Authorities sent out lifeguards and a helicopter to look for Juan, but there was no sign of him until Oct. 9, when a person found his body in the Peninsula area of Long Beach where it had washed ashore.

Once the family heard about the incident, they knew it was likely him, Villa said.

Villa and Juan often told people they were cousins because they were so close in age. He described Juan as a caring person.

“Despite everything he dealt with, he was a good person. He had a huge heart,” Villa said. “It wouldn’t matter if he was going through stuff himself, he was there for his friends.”

At family functions, he loved playing with the kids and was a “big kid himself,” Villa said.

The family is working to raise funds for funeral expenses through a GoFundMe.

“We weren’t prepared for this,” Alondra said.

Valerie Osier is the Social Media & Newsletter Manager for the Long Beach Post. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @ValerieOsier