Officials search for missing man; body found in Fort Caroline woods

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — One man is dead after a search for a missing man led police to a body. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said deputies found a body in the woods, but stopped short of saying it was the missing man.

Julia Baker heard search crews right above her home Saturday and saw police all around.

“They continued for a good two hours,” Baker said.

Action News was there when the entrance to her usually quiet neighborhood, called Monument Landing, was completely closed off.

Just feet away, our crew spotted officers in the woods.

They told Action News reporter Amanda Warford that they were searching for a missing man in his 40s who ran into these woods with a bow at his side.

“Investigation led the officers to the 2300 block of Monument Road,” said Sgt. S.A. Rammage with JSO.

Sgt. Rammage said that man's family reported him missing around 1 p.m.

Over the next three hours, Action News reporter Amanda Warford counted nearly a dozen officers and first responders in the area.

Then, the search was called off and the medical examiner arrived.

“The investigation led officers to a man who was deceased in the woods,” Rammage said.

Police say they have yet to determine who that man was, how he died, and what he was doing in a wooded area, protected by the state, where no one should be.

“It's so sad. It's so sad,” Baker said. “What they were doing back there I don't know. But all of these people out here are neighbors and to hear a death is just overcoming. It's just overwhelming.”

WJAX