Body found in submerged vehicle identified as missing South Carolina man, coroner says
Update: South Carolina officials have identified a body found in a submerged vehicle over the weekend as a man who vanished last month, the coroner’s office said.
Thelonious Lamar Green, 54, went missing in June. On July 9, divers located his truck submerged in the Edisto River, according to the coroner’s office. There was a body in the truck when it was recovered.
The Charleston County Coroner’s Office officially identified the body as Green on July 11, according to a news release. His cause of death is pending.
The original story is below:
A submerged truck belonging to a missing South Carolina man had a body in it when it was discovered by civilian divers in the Edisto River, authorities say.
The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office says it responded to Willtown Bluff Boat Landing around 5:30 p.m. July 9 after a call that a diver located a submerged vehicle. The diver removed the license plate from the vehicle and deputies determined the vehicle belonged to Thelonious Lamar Green, 54, who went missing in June.
The body inside the truck had not been identified as of Monday morning, July 11. McClatchy News reached out to the Charleston County Coroner’s Office but did not receive an immediate response.
Green, 54, was last seen leaving a gathering in Adams Run, S.C., the evening of June 4, according to a CCSO news release. Family members grew concerned after they did not hear from Green, who has memory loss and relies on medication for other health issues, the release says.
After an ongoing search, Green’s family reached out to Illinois-based civilian dive team Chaos Divers which agreed to travel to Charleston. The team volunteers to help families of missing people across the country and assists in investigations and searches. CCSO said its team had previously searched areas of the river for Green’s car but did not find anything.
“We appreciate the Green family’s cooperation with the investigation and their extra efforts in working to find their loved one,” Andrew Knapp, a spokesperson for CCSO, wrote in a news release. “We thank Chaos Divers for their diligence in searching the water and helping to bring a measure of closure to Lamar Green’s family.”
Foul play is not suspected, authorities say.
This story was originally published July 11, 2022 at 11:49 AM.
