Story
last updated at 11:43 PM on Aug. 9, 2004
Body identified as missing woman
Cause of death unknown
By Joe Johnson
joe.johnson@onlineathens.com
A woman's body found near a Wilkes County river Wednesday has been identified
as that of a University of Georgia employee who had been reported missing the
day before by family members.
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Mike
Siegler, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's
Thomson office, said Monday that fingerprints and dental records provided by
the woman's family identified the body as that of 29-year-old Kathryn Anne
Grant.
The
cause of death remained undetermined, but Siegler said an autopsy found no
signs of trauma. Grant reportedly had been despondent over the recent death of
a friend, and investigators said the woman had purchased over-the-counter
sleeping pills July 31, the last time she had been seen alive.
Wilkes
County Deputy Coroner Blake Thompson said it could take several more weeks to
officially determine the cause of death as officials were awaiting the results
of toxicology tests from the GBI's State Crime Lab.
Grant
was reported missing to Athens authorities last Tuesday by her father, Randy
Grant, when she did not show up for work the previous two days at UGA's
Veterinary Teaching Hospital. She also failed to show up for an Aug. 2 job
interview, the woman's father said.
According
to Siegler, Grant's body was found in a wooded area near the Little River in
Wilkes County, some 200 yards from her Ford F-150 pickup with a kayak mounted
on a wood frame in the truck's bed.
Because
Grant was an avid kayaker, the state Department of Natural Resources was
notified of her disappearance, and it was a DNR ranger who found the truck
parked under a bridge where the Little River - which separates Wilkes and
McDuffie counties - empties into Clark's Hill Reservoir, Siegler said. The site
is off U.S. Highway 78 about 10 miles southeast of Washington and 40 miles from
Athens.
Grant
lived with a roommate at a Barnett Shoals Road apartment, who reported last
seeing the missing woman at about 2:30 p.m. July 31. A UGA co-worker told
police of seeing Grant later that same day at the Super Wal-Mart on Lexington
Road, where investigators learned she had purchased sleeping pills.
Published in the Athens
Banner-Herald on Tuesday, August 10, 2004