Authorities are investigating the death of a man whose badly decomposed body washed up on the banks of the Bogue Chitto River on Saturday.
Resident Bobby McGinnis, who was searching for driftwood, called authorities after spotting the body on a sandbar a few miles south of Walker’s Bridge in Walthall County around 9:45 a.m.
Walthall County Coroner Shannon Hartzog said the body was that of a white male in his 50s.
Hartzog said he believes he has a positive identification of Daniel Armstrong, 58, a Tennessee resident who had been living in McComb and who had been missing.
Authorities based the identification from a license recovered from the body and through interviews with Armstrong’s family, but Hartzog said he is awaiting a DNA test to confirm those findings.
“We found some circumstantial stuff,” he said. “We pretty much know who it is. I just want to be positive.”
The cause of death was undetermined as of this morning. Authorities are expecting autopsy results from the medical examiner’s office sometime today.
The body had no apparent injuries or wounds that would lead authorities to speculate on whether the death was an accident or the result of foul play. Hartzog said the body had been decomposing for several weeks.
“Due to the state of the body, it was really hard to see anything,” he said.
Armstrong was last seen about three weeks ago. No missing person report, however, had been filed.
The Walthall County Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation, though investigators could not be reached for comment today.
The case marks the third death investigation conducted by the Walthall County Sheriff’s Department this year. The first began Feb. 3 and ended with the arrest of 29-year-old Brian E. Fortenberry who allegedly shot and killed his mother. The second began Feb. 21 when 52-year-old Walter Lampton Jr. was found shot to death in his home. That case remains open.
