Four boys who went fishing Sunday afternoon at Big Generostee Creek made an unintended catch when they discovered a dead body floating near the dam.
Steven Sherman, 16, said he and three friends were sitting on the creek’s
banks when he noticed his floater being pulled toward the dam in southwestern
He said they were so surprised by their finding that they poked the corpse with a stick to make sure it was real.
The boys were headed home to call police when they ran into two of their neighbors at a nearby bridge and used a cell phone to notify authorities.
Susann Griffin, an Anderson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, said the
agency received the call at about 3 p.m. The sheriff’s office, Williford
Fire Department and the swift water rescue team responded to the scene at
The deceased is a white man who was found fully clothed in tan pants and dark jacket, according to authorities and witnesses.
An investigation into the man’s death is ongoing, and the Anderson County Coroner’s Office has scheduled an autopsy for 10 a.m. today, Ms. Griffin said.
The dam was one of the boys’ regular fishing spots for the past two years. They said they catch bream, carp and catfish in the creek but mostly go to there to hang out.
Mr. Sherman was more disturbed about having walked in the water than finding the body. He said that part hasn’t hit him yet. But Teresa Callaham, whose son’s phone they used to call police, was still visibly shaking two hours after the incident occurred.
Her brother, who is deaf, has an acute sense of smell and picked up the body’s stench as they came down the road, Ms. Callaham said.
She said her heart hurt just thinking about the man’s family.
“I’m 40 years old, and I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Ms. Callaham said.