A man helping to build a seawall was found dead in the water by his co-workers, and his death is still under investigation, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
The victim, Cody Brandon Seymour, 30, of Cunningham Road, Greensboro, was discovered face-down in the waters by a coworker on Oct. 11, according to a report by Putnam County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Barbee III.
Seymour was assisting two other men in building a seawall at a residence at River North Drive S.E. on Lake Sinclair, across U.S. Hwy. 441 from the Georgia Power Plant Branch site.
According to Barbee’s report, the coworker who found Seymour said he had been filling in dirt behind the seawall with a skid steer and Seymour had been nearby pushing the riprap rocks into the lake where the new riprap had already been installed. Upon realizing he hadn’t seen Seymour in a while, the coworker became concerned and stopped the skid steer and searched for Seymour.
The coworker told Barbee that Seymour was floating unresponsive face-down in about three feet of water, so the coworker jumped into the water and turned Seymour over. Unable to pull Seymour out of the water, the coworker propped Seymour on top of the riprap against the seawall, then ran to a nearby condominium and knocked on the door, where he asked the resident to call 911.
The coworker then ran back to Seymour and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Another man came and tried to help the coworker get Seymour out of the water, but they were unable to do so.
Barbee said two Putnam County Fire Department rescuers – Brandon Neff and Robert Huckaby – pulled the victim from the water and said they were unable to revive him.
The body was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations Crime Lab for autopsy, but the results have not yet been released, according to Putnam County Coroner Hollis Harrison. The death investigation is pending the results of the autopsy, Sills said.
Seymour, who attended Greene County High School, was “a loving son, fiancé, father, brother, and uncle,” according to the Watts Funeral Home obituary.
An unnamed friend commented on the Watts website that “Cody was the (most funny) person I ever met in my whole life. … I’ve never met a person who made me laugh as much as he did. … (We) never even needed television with him because he was always the light and entertainment. … He loved Rita (his fiancé) and his son (Mason) so much.”