ATLANTA — Search crews recovered the body of a missing college student in the Chattahoochee River Thursday afternoon.
Christian Maloney, 23, had been missing since Tuesday when he and some friends went to Akers Mill Trail to jump off a popular diving rock. After Maloney jumped, witnesses said he called out for help and then went under. He never resurfaced.
Crews searched for him for days before recovering a body Thursday. Police have not officially identified the body, but Maloney's mother told Channel 2's Audrey Washington that police told her it was her son. Maloney was a student at the University of West Georgia.
BREAKING NEWS:
— Audrey Washington (@AudreyWSBTV) May 30, 2019
The mother of the 23 year old, West Georgia University student who went missing in the Chattahoochee, just told me crews found her son in the water.@wsbtv pic.twitter.com/R4h479hb5Z
Kona Maloney says her son knew how to swim, but around 5 p.m. the day he disappeared the dam was opened, causing the water under the surface to speed up, and she believes her son got caught up in the fast-moving current. His two friends were able to swim to safety.
She said her goal now is to warn others of the dangers.
“They say that there are so many drownings out here every year. Why? There’s got to be something that we can do to keep people from coming out here and drowning,” she said. “It’s too doggone dangerous.”
Kona Maloney said she wants signs put up in the area warning about the changes in current when the dam is opened.
Cox Media Group
