Drowning victim's body found

The search for a man missing since Halloween came to an end Tuesday as authorities recovered his body from the Duck River.

The remains of 26-year-old Randy Marbry of Scales Road were found Tuesday by officials who had been hunting for the man since the first of November.

Marbry went missing Oct. 31 following a trail ride he took that day with his mother along the banks of the Duck River near Halls Mill, according to Sheriff Randall Boyce.

Boyce said that Marbry was familiar with trail riding; however, the horse he was riding was not. The sheriff said that Marbry's mother heard her son take the horse down to the river, but she did not follow him.

Marbry's mother called for her son to come out of the river, but could not hear a response, although she could hear the horse splashing in the water, Boyce said.

Boyce said Marbry's mother returned home since she could still hear the horse trotting downstream and thought nothing of it when he didn't return that night, saying that in the past, Marbry had ridden off and would not return for several days.

"They (the family) didn't think that much about it," Boyce said.

However, on Nov. 2, deputies took a report from a person canoeing who found a horse standing in a shallow part of the Duck and the search began.

Boyce assumed that Marbry had taken the horse into deep water and said his remains were found on a gravel bar Tuesday afternoon. The sheriff said an extensive search had been conducted for the past two weeks, "using every means available," including a helicopter with surveillance equipment.

Boyce said that changes in the level and temperature of the river over the past few weeks due to rainfall made the search more difficult.

The sheriff praised Chief Mark Thomas and Volunteer Fire Services Inc., saying they were "relentless" in their search for Marbry. He also praised diving teams with Emergency Medical Services that worked the search.

"They used everything known to man for days out there," Boyce said of those who participated in the search. "They went way above and beyond the call of duty."