A Catholic Chaplain and Deacon lost his life on Tuesday of this week in Chattooga County.

Sixty-five-year-old Joe Eustace was a resident of Chattooga County and a chaplain at Hays State Prison.  He also assisted the priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Rome.

According to the Georgia State Patrol:

On Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 10:54 a.m., troopers from Post 38 Rome were dispatched to a single-vehicle crash on Penn Bridge Road.

A 1994 Jeep Cherokee, driven by Joseph Eustace, 65, was traveling south on Penn Bridge Road, south of Walker Street. The Jeep Cherokee left the west side of the roadway, where it overturned, traveled down an embankment and came to rest upside down partially submerged in the Chattooga River.

Eustace was taken to Floyd Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.