DNR says woman's body found in Lanier

BUFORD - Authorities with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Hall County Sheriff's Office have recovered the body of a woman who went missing after she jumped from a boat Monday night.<br /> <br /> Mark McKinnon, a spokesman for the DNR, said the body was discovered around 9:15 Thursday morning by someone in the Holiday Marina area. That person called Hall County Dispatch, and emergency crews arrived at the scene shortly thereafter to recover the body. <br /> <br /> The victim has been identified as Christine Earwood, 49, of Duluth, according to McKinnon. <br /> <br /> He said there were a couple of factors that prevented searchers from finding Earwood's body sooner.<br /> <br /> "One is the water in that area [Big Creek] is very deep," said McKinnon. "There are a lot of trees along the bottom, there are also a lot of ridges along the bottom that makes it hard for that sonar to penetrate."<br /> <br /> Also, stormy weather prompted searchers to suspend their operations early on Wednesday.<br /> <br /> "We knocked off about 4 yesterday afternoon because of those storms, and that cut us short a little."<br /> <br /> McKinnon said the exact cause of Earwood's death has yet to be determined. Her body was transported to the GBI Crime Lab for an autopsy.<br /> <br />

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