Authorities have found the body of a 19-year-old man who went missing in the water at Bluff Hole Park in Mulberry.
The body of Timothy Thompson, of Spiro, Okla., was found shortly after noon Tuesday (June 11), according to police.
Family and friends gathered at the search site as crews pulled the body from the water and loaded him into an ambulance.
"The family indicated that they definitely wanted to find their boy," explained Mulberry Police Chief Shannon Gregory. "I hope it brings closure to the family and puts them a little bit at peace."
"The mother and father are very much hurting right now," Mulberry Mayor Gary Baxter said. "So we're just praying that God gives them the grace to go through the next few days of what they have to go through."
Authorities picked up their search early Tuesday morning after dive teams stopped looking late Monday night, when it was too dark for team members to see.
"They've been searching basically the same area where the witnesses told us that they last saw him," Gregory said. "They found him just a little down river from there."
Dive teams, as well as search and rescue crews were called in at about 7 p.m. Monday night (June 10) to search for the man, who had been swimming with three other friends—two men and one woman, police said.
Three out of the four friends were swimming across the creek when the victim began having problems and went under, according to Gregory.
Thompson's body is now at the medical examiner's office in Crawford County, authorities said.
