Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Conservation Police have found a body on the James River, about two months after two hunters went missing during a snowstorm.
The identity of the body has not been confirmed, according to VDGIF Capt. Milt Robinson.
Conservation police received a report of a body on the shore of the James River in Surry County in the early afternoon Friday, Robinson said.
The body was found by a citizen just upriver from the Jamestown-Surry Ferry.
This is the second body found in a week.
On Sunday, another citizen found a body on Tyler’s Beach in Isle of Wight County. The body was later identified as one of the missing boaters, Brian Austin Savage, 20, of Henrico County.
The other missing boater is 29-year-old Kyle Englehart, of Charles City County. A medical examiner has picked up the body found Friday, but has not yet identified it.
The two men went out on the river Jan. 3 in a 16-foot Jon boat to work on a waterfowl blind they had near Grays Creek in Surry County.
The men disappeared late that night as a snowstorm hit eastern Virginia, dropping 5 to 10 inches of snow and creating two-foot waves on the James. The storm was accompanied by below-freezing temperatures.
Savage and Englehart were both reported missing the following afternoon.
During the initial search Jan. 4 and 5, rescue crews found the 16-foot boat washed up on Hog Island, according to Petty Officer 3rd Class Corinne Zilnicki, spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard.
Freezing temperatures forced officials to call off the search Jan. 5, after ice formed on the river.
The Virginia State Police and VDGIF resumed the search Jan. 6.
VDGIF conservation police officers have been routinely looking for the men for two months. Other agencies, including the National Park Service, Surry County Sheriff’s Office and James City County Police have also been searching.
The VDGIF conservation police were joined Friday by the Surry County Sheriff’s Office, Surry emergency services and the Virginia State Police, Robinson said.
WYDaily archives were used in this story.
