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 Murrells Inlet-Garden City Fire Rescue, 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.

Murrells Inlet-Garden City Fire Rescue told News13 just last week, it’s new drone upgrade would allow them to fly it anywhere using cell service. It helps with rescues and recoveries, but they didn’t think they’d need to use it so soon.

“It’s going to prove to be a very valuable asset to the whole Grand Strand,” Battalion Chief Jim Edbrooke said.

Edbrooke said the department launched the drone on Monday but had no luck. Then on Tuesday, they were able to locate the man within an hour and a half.

“Being in a department which is surrounded by water on both sides with the river and the ocean, I see this happening more and more where we’re going to be able to deploy the drone,” Edbrooke said.

He said this is the second time within a week that the department has had to respond to a search situation. In this incident, he said the department it was asked to respond alongside multiple local and state agencies.

Edbrooke said its drone coordinator operated the drone from U.S. Coast Guard Station Georgetown.

“One of the giant perks of this system is being able to have your operator not have to be out in the field with the drone, but instead can be in the command post and getting real-time information back to those people who are making the decisions,” Edbrooke said.

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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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Adrianna Lawrence is a multimedia journalist at News13. Adrianna is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and joined the News13 team in June 2023 after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2023. Keep up with Adrianna on Instagram, Facebook , and X, formerly Twitter . You can also read more of her work, here .

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