Body found Tuesday identified as missing Alabama man

A body found Tuesday in a Jackson County, Alabama, creek has been positively identified as the 18-year-old Geraldine man who went missing Feb. 22 when a Jeep he was riding in with two other people was swept into a flooding creek.

The body found Tuesday in South Sauty Creek was identified as that of Koy Spears after an examination at the Alabama Department of Forensic Services Huntsville Laboratory, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Marine Patrol Capt. Gary Buchanan said in a statement.

It was found by a four anglers on South Sauty Creek, a few miles upstream from where the creek joins the Tennessee River at Guntersville Lake and about a mile and a half downstream from where the Jeep disappeared in the flooding creek in Buck's Pocket State Park.

Buchanan said Wednesday morning that fishermen spotted the body near the Morgan Cove boat ramp. Marine Patrol troopers confirmed the discovery.

Spears was riding in a Jeep Cherokee with two others when the vehicle was swept off a creek crossing in the park near the Jackson-Marshal-Etowah county line.

The other two people in the Jeep that night - 22-year-old Sara Lucille Mooneyham, of Crossville, Alabama, and 21-year-old Jaxon Cole Jones, of Dawson, Alabama - were found a couple of hours later clinging to a tree downstream, authorities said.

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