Chattanooga police found the body of a missing 40-year-old man in Chickamauga Creek late Monday afternoon, department spokeswoman Sgt. Jerri Weary said.
Police stretched nearly 100 yards of yellow crime scene tape around brush and trees bordering a gas station parking lot at the Walmart on Brainerd Road. Police investigator Brian Russell walked under the tape to record the scene with a handheld video camera.
Chattanooga Fire Department Capt. Benita Owens helped cut a trail to the spot where a family member found the body of the white male.
“We cut a brush path for investigators,” Capt. Owens said.
Police and Chattanooga firefighters removed the body on a gurney.
The man’s name had not been released as of early Monday evening, but police said he was reported missing Sunday.
The body was taken to the Hamilton County medical examiner’s office, according to Sgt. Weary. She said the man’s cause of death still was undetermined.
Police did not identify the victim.
At the scene, Harriet Collins paced the parking lot in a bitterly cold wind, worried that the body was that of her homeless brother, who often camps in the brush.
“My sister said our brother hadn’t seen him in awhile,” she said.
Ms. Collins later left the scene after concluding the body was not that of her brother.