Man’s body found in Guyandotte River

LINCOLN COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) - A man’s body was found late Tuesday afternoon under a bridge in the Guyandotte River, Lincoln County 911 dispatchers and Sheriff G.W. Linville said.

The body was found in the Branchland area.

Dispatchers say West Virginia State Police troopers are investigating.

According to our crew at the scene, a man who lives in Branchland said around 4:30 pm, he saw what appeared to be a body in the Guyandotte River.

He said he asked another man, Stephen Hall, to call 911 from a nearby business.

“I came to the store to get some cigarettes and a bite to eat, was talking to my friend over here who spotted the body in the river, and he hollered at me from across the bridge to call 911, and that’s what I did,” Hall said.

The body was found near the U.S. Army Sgt. Paul Norman Chapman Memorial Bridge, which crosses the Guyandotte River on Hubball Road.

Dive crews with a local fire department arrived at the scene to retrieve the body.

The bridge was closed to traffic during the investigation.

Neighbors like 82-year-old Gary Donahue, who’s lived in the area his whole life, had to wait for the bridge to re-open before they could get home.

“Everybody here knows each other just about,” he said. “We were born and raised right here. We all know when one hurts, we all hurt.”

Investigators say the body is being sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

Law enforcement also reviewed security video from a convenience store along the river, where employees say the man had been shopping Monday.

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