The body of a male victim discovered in Center Hill Lake on April 6, has now been positively identified as a missing man from Putnam County. Authorities say that per an autopsy, the body has been identified as 37-year-old William Hightailing Jr. of Baxter, TN. Hightailing had been reported missing out of Cookeville by the Cookeville Police Department in March 2022.

The evening when the body was found, Sheriff Patrick Ray contacted the District Attorney General‘s Office and requested the assistance of Tennessee Bureau of Investigation due to a possible multi-county case. (Putnam and DeKalb) District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway requested the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to assist the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department with the case.

Authorities recovered the body on April 6, near the Johnson’s Chapel Recreation area. According to Sheriff Ray the body was discovered by a fisherman in about 3-4 feet of water, and was nude, except for the pair of socks he was wearing with a small wallet tucked into the socks. The wallet contained identification.

“Today [April 6] at 1:23 p.m. there was a 911 transfer call from the White County to DeKalb County Central Dispatch. The caller stated that there was a body in the water floating near the bank and boat ramp at Johnson’s Chapel,” Sheriff Ray said.

“When we arrived on the scene, we found the body of a white male. We called the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad and TWRA and they assisted in retrieving the body from the water and bringing it to the bank. The body was naked. The only thing he had on was a pair of socks. His identification was in his sock. We think we know who the male is. We believe him to be from a surrounding county,” Sheriff Ray explained.

“A man came to the area to check the lake to see if it (the water level) was up because he was going to go fishing when he noticed something near the boat ramp,” Sheriff Ray said. “At first, he thought it was an animal, but as he got a closer look, he found it to be a human body.”

Because of the poor phone service in that area, the man went to the top of the hill to call 911 which did a transfer to White County and then the White County 911 center transferred it to DeKalb County,” Sheriff Ray concluded.

When if the victim had drowned or had died by other means, Sheriff Ray said that no other information is being released at this time.