BRYAN COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) – It’s now been a week since a man painting the underside of the I-95 bridge fell into the Ogeechee River. His body has still not been recovered.
WTOC has obtained a report from the Bryan County Sheriff’s Office that identifies the man as 55-year-old Jose Garcia Hernandez.
According to the report, after falling into the river, Hernandez was observed, “struggling in the water, unable to swim, and bobbing in and out of the river.” He was wearing a white shirt, a yellow safety vest, and a construction tool belt. Hernandez was last seen “drifting with the current in a southeast direction, under the northbound span” of the I-95 bridge over the Ogeechee River. Construction crew workers threw a line towards Hernandez, but he wasn’t able to reach it.
Multiple agencies have joined in on this week long search including local boaters. The search teams have been scouring the Ogeechee between I-95 and Highway 17 since last Monday.
Monday, the Bryan County Sheriff’s Office deployed a cadaver dog, and we’ve learned that the dog has smelled something that’s alerted law enforcement, now the dive team is being called back in.
Divers have already been placed in the water these past few days, locating areas with sonar technology, but they’ve come up empty. These dogs are the next step.
We’re told the dog alerted them to an area closer to I-95 bridge, we don’t know which side of the bridge it was.
“He’s scented an odor that lets him know that’s what we’re looking for so it’s some sort of a scent letting him know he thinks it’s there so were gonna put the dive team in the water where he thinks it is,” said Bryan County Public Information Officer, Candace Hunnicutt.
The sheriff’s office is working with another cadaver dog handler in South Carolina if this one doesn’t work out.
Again, this is day eight of the search for this man. The sheriff’s office says that as long as they have different ways to find this man, they’ll keep trying.
Copyright 2025 WTOC. All rights reserved.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
