By Joe Johnson
An Athens man who had been missing for over a week was found near a shotgun when his body was recovered Monday afternoon from the North Oconee River by divers with the South Carolia Department of Natural Resources, according to the Law Enforcement Division of the Goergia DNR.
The body of 27-year-old Seth Evans and the shotgun were turned over to Athens-Clarke coroner Sonny Wilson, who said he could not speculate on the man’s cause of death until the results of an autopsy at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner’s Office are known.
Wilson also said a bag of concrete were in a back pack Evans was wearing, but he could not say if that was used to weight Evans down in the water.
Wilson said that members of a search party that included local firefighters and personnel from the Georgia and South Carolina DNRs located Evans’ body in water about 15-feet deep behind the ruins of Charlie Williams’ Pinecrest Lodge on the banks of the North Oconee River.
Wilson said he was confident the body was that of the missing man due to personal contents that were in the back pack that was found with the body.
Athens-Clarke County police said they had seen video footage of Evans purchasing a 60-pound bag of concrete mix prior to his disappearance.