An Alaskan man, who spoke to Sean Lawson on Saturday afternoon, says his friend was an "all round great guy".
The body of Mr Lawson (20) was found on the south side of the Kakanui River mouth on Tuesday morning and a postmortem confirmed he had drowned.
In an email to the Otago Daily Times from Alaska, Mr Lawson's friend, who did not want to be named, said he spoke to Mr Lawson about 5pm on Saturday.
"I guess all I have to say is that Sean was an all round great guy, and a good friend to have. I rarely saw him in a bad mood. He will be missed by many," he said.
Yesterday, Senior Sergeant Kevin Hooper said he had spoken to the friend, who had also contacted police, and his information was helpful as police would be doing a time-line to place Mr Lawson at different places leading up to his being in the river.
