The body found Monday in the Hocking River was identified as Sam Wiater, the Athens man whose mother had reported him missing almost six weeks ago, Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle said.
The body was identified Tuesday through fingerprints, Lt. Jeff McCall said. He added the criminal investigation is ongoing, as the cause of death has not been determined.
There had been extensive efforts to locate Wiater, who was 21 and worked at Avalanche Pizza, in the days and weeks after his disappearance.
Just after 1 p.m. Monday, the Athens Fire Department received a call from a pair of fishermen on the Hocking River who had found a body. Authorities declined to comment whether the body was found drifting atop or submerged underneath the water. Athens police and firefighters, as well as a dive team, recovered the body from the river.
Wiater will be sent to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy, according to a news release from Lt. Anthony Fish. The procedure generally takes six to eight weeks, Pyle added.
Though a criminal investigation will be initiated, the department has no reason to suspect foul play or that the public is in any danger, Fish said in the release.
“The police department will proceed as if we have a criminal investigation,” Pyle said. “Until it’s proven otherwise, we will assume a criminal investigation and move forward in that regard.”
On the night of March 13 — when his mother, Trina, reported him missing — Wiater reportedly abandoned his car on Currier Street and was not seen again. The body was found about three-eighths of a mile south of the Currier Street Bridge, Pyle said.
The Wiater family released a short statement Tuesday afternoon through “Bring Sam Wiater Home,” a Facebook group dedicated to the search effort.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that we tell all of you who have stood by us so faithfully through the last 40 days that the identity of the man found in the Hocking River has been confirmed as our son, Sam,” the statement read. “Our hearts are broken, as this cross is hard to bear. We ask for your prayers of comfort as we figure out how to cope with this unfathomable loss.”
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