ATHENS, Ga. (AP) – Authorities in Georgia are working to determine if a body pulled from the Middle Oconee River is that of a man reported missing last month.
The body was found Friday caught in a logjam in the river in Athens by searchers with the Athens-Clarke County fire and police departments, Clarke County Coroner Sonny Wilson said.
The search along the river was prompted by an investigation into the disappearance of Quavian Culver, 27, who was last seen Dec. 13 at an Athens apartment complex. The river flows behind the complex.
Culver’s mother, Tammy Tarpkins, said Friday that investigators told her the body is likely that of her son, but only an examination at the State Crime Lab can confirm that suspicion, The Athens Banner-Herald reported.
On the day Culver disappeared, investigators saw him at the apartment complex shortly before 5 p.m. on surveillance-camera footage, police Lt. Shaun Barnett said.
There have been no other positive sightings of him since that time, police said.
In an interview earlier in the week, Tarpkins said she believed something bad had happened to her son. Culver was on probation, but was regularly attending his probationary classes, she said. As the father of three, including a young infant, he had no reason to suddenly leave without an explanation, she told the newspaper.
The family believed the river was a key to finding Culver. His grandmother, Loretta Tarpkins, said this week that she had a vision that Culver’s body was in the river.
“I had a vision, spiritual, and kept telling the detective, ‘My grandson is in water. You need to check the place you saw him at,’ and I didn’t know there was a river there, but I said he’s in the water,” she said.
On Friday, police and members of the fire department were at the river as part of the investigation when they found the badly decomposed body.