Body found at Amazon warehouse is missing teenager, Lexington County coroner says
The Lexington County Coroner’s Office said that a missing teenager is the person whose body was found Wednesday at an Amazon distribution center in West Columbia.
Jerrold George Dejean, a 19-year-old Gaston resident, was found dead in a retention pond at the Amazon fulfillment facility, Coroner Margaret Fisher said Wednesday night.
Dejean was reported missing on Nov. 30, according to Fisher. On Dec. 5, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department asked for the public’s help in its search for Dejean.
Fisher said it was about 1:20 p.m. when her office responded to the Amazon warehouse in the 4400 block of 12th Street in West Columbia.
Information about Dejean’s cause and manner of death was not available, but Fisher said an autopsy has been scheduled at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston on Friday.
No other injuries were reported.
It was not known from initial reports if Dejean was an Amazon employee.
A spokesperson for Amazon declined to provide more information and said the company was deferring all statements to the sheriff’s department, which is continuing to investigate the death along with the coroner’s office.
There was no word if foul play is suspected in Dejean’s death.
On Wednesday afternoon, the sheriff’s department posted on itsFacebook page that deputieshad responded to reports of a body “in a retention pond near the Amazon facility on 12th Street Ext.”
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This story was originally published December 13, 2023 at 4:43 PM.
