By Patrick Yost
Editor

Morgan County volunteer firefighters and members of the Morgan County Sheriff's Office located a deceased man after a nearly 10-hour search Monday near the Mallard Ridge subdivision.
According to Lt. Mark Williams, Morgan County Sheriff's Office, the man was found asphyxiated under a tree by members of the Morgan County Fire Department. Williams said the man tied a shirt around a low tree limb and his neck.
Williams said authorities were notified by the 42-year-old man's wife on Monday morning that the man had been missing since Saturday night. Williams said the wife told authorities that she and the man had a verbal argument and that the man left the Mallard Court residence at approximately 8 p.m. Saturday night. The woman said the man had left the residence in the past for three to four hours after arguments. "He was upset and walked into the woods," Williams said.
More than 20 volunteers and emergency personnel combed a seven-acre tract behind the residence Monday morning. "It was a grid-by-grid search," Williams said.
Officers used bloodhounds from the Department of Corrections and the Newton County Sheriff's Office during the search. Cadaver dogs from the Dawson County Emergency Services Department were also called in during the search. Williams said after the search was suspended for foul weather Monday afternoon, Morgan County volunteers located the deceased man approximately 250 yards from the residence in a densely wooded area. The man's body was located at approximately 6:30 p.m. and investigator's believe he died sometime Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
Williams said there was no evidence of foul play at the scene but that the body was to be examined by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations crime lab.

Printed in the July 19, 2012