Paulding County authorities believe a video taken two weeks ago by a concerned citizen has helped them identify a heavily decomposed body.
Cpl. Ashley Henson said members of the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office were called to the 3300 block of Ridge Road on Friday afternoon after a resident found a dead body in the woods near his home. The body, believed to belong to a male, was “badly decomposed,” Henson said, and authorities have not been able to determine a manner of death.
A video taken June 24, however, has allowed them to make a “preliminary identification.”
Henson said investigators canvassing the neighborhood following the body’s discovery interviewed several neighbors, including one woman who reported seeing a white male “acting very strangely” while walking through her yard on that date.
“The resident stated that the male was jumping around, holding on to a fence, laying on the ground and flopping around, and acting as if he was under the influence of some type of illegal narcotic,” Henson said. “The resident even had enough presence of mind to video the unknown male while he was acting this way.”
Authorities released Sunday a still image from that video and, thanks to social media tips, made a tentative identification of the man in the photo, Henson said.
“Once the autopsy is completed and the next of kin has been contacted, we will know for sure,” Henson said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is expected to perform an autopsy Monday.
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