Originally posted 6 p.m. July 5, 2022

Update posted 7:50 p.m. July 6, 2022

MOULTRIE, Ga. –- A body found Friday was initially identified as a man who’d been missing for a week, but it may not have been.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said the body discovered in woods off Hopewell Church Road has not been positively identified.

The Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office issued a missing person alert on Tuesday, June 28, asking local residents to help find a Moultrie man.

Christopher Jackson Merritt, 53, was last seen Friday, June 24, near the Moultrie YMCA, according to the Facebook post. 

About 10:57 a.m. Friday, July 1, deputies were dispatched to the 100 block of Hopewell Church Road, where a man who was looking for Merritt said he found his body.

According to the sheriff’s office incident report, the complainant stated he was walking in the woods trying to look for Merritt when he “smelled a bad smell.”

The complainant said he found a body slumped over in the woods. The Colquitt County deputy’s initial report said the body was Merritt’s.

EMS contacted Verlyn Brock, the Colquitt County coroner, at 11:02 a.m. and Brock reported to the scene at 11:17 a.m.

Investigators with the CCSO Criminal Investigations Division arrived at the scene at 11:06 a.m.

The case and the found body were turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. 

The body is currently at the GBI Crime Lab awaiting autopsy.

Excluding the sheriff’s office initial report, both the CCSO and Brock deferred any questions to the GBI, which released a short statement on Wednesday morning.