The Chattooga County Sheriff’s Department is treating the discovery of a male body floating in the Chattooga River at Lyerly as a homicide investigation. According to Sheriff John Everett, the identity of the black male has not been verified by the GBI Crime Lab in Atlanta.

The body of the man was found on Friday evening around 7:45 PM.  After getting a boat into the water, rescue workers were able to retrieve the body around 9:15 p.m., according to Sheriff Everett.Originally investigators could not see the body clearly from their vantage point and could not identify the sex or gender until rescue workers reached the body.

The body appeared to be a black male of unknown age, height, etc.

Chattooga County Coroner Earle Rainwater told reporters “We still don’t know who he is, and we still don’t know what happened,” Rainwater said it would likely be mid-Monday before investigators knew more about the man and what happened.