OCONEE COUNTY, S.C. — Authorities believe they have found the body of a missing 21-year-old man who disappeared on Feb. 25.
The Clemson City Police Department announced on Sunday afternoon that the search for Andruw Earnhardt had tentatively come to an end after a body matching his description had been found in the Oconee County portion of Lake Hartwell.
The department said that the body was discovered around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday and followed searches of the lake that had been ongoing since three days after he was first reported missing. The department said that it had asked for the assistance of Pickens County Emergency Management, Oconee County Emergency Management and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources after evidence suggested he may have been in that area.
But the search initially began in the area of the Clemson train station on Tiger Boulevard where authorities believed he had been as well.
The body has since been turned over to the Oconee County coroner's office for confirmed identification. Both the coroner and the Clemson Police Department are also looking into the cause and manner of death.
While announcing the most recent update in the search, the police department and its police chief expressed their condolences to the Earnhardt family during "this very trying time."
