Body of North Carolina man who jumped from Georgetown County bridge recovered from Waccamaw River

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — The body of a 37-year-old man who leaped from the L.H. Siau Memorial Bridge in Georgetown County on Sunday night was recovered Tuesday in the Waccamaw River, authorities said.

The man — Shawn Timothy Lauver of Bolivia, North Carolina — was identified Tuesday afternoon in an incident report released by the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office. His body was spotted at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday by a Murrells Inlet Garden City Fire Rescue drone.

Authorities began looking for Lauver about 8:40 p.m. Sunday after authorities said a driver involved in a crash in the northbound lanes of Highway 17 left his vehicle and jumped off the east side of the bridge. Authorities saw the man in the water about 300 yards east of the bridge before losing sight of him after about two or three minutes.

According to the report, before Lauver jumped off the bridge, he told a passerby that he was drunk and was not going to go to jail.

During the search, Georgetown County Emergency Management on Monday cautioned boaters in Winyah Bay near the bridge that the public safety crews would be searching in the area.

The multiagency search included teams from the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office, Midway Fire Rescue, U.S. Coast Guard, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the state Department of Public Safety and the Georgetown Police Department.

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Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12 . See more of his work here .

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Dennis Bright is a Digital Producer at News13 . He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook , X, formerly Twitter , and read more of his work here .

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