Officials Release Cause Of Death For Lancaster County Man Found Dead

Marvin Beach,

UPDATE: Lancaster County Chief Deputy Coroner says that Jerry Cauthen died of exposure to the environment.

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UPDATE: Police say the body of 74-year-old Jerry Cauthen was found Wednesday morning in a heavily wooded area off of Flint Ridge Road.

An investigation is currently underway to determine was led to Cauthen’s death.

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LANCASTER, SC – Tuesday volunteers will resume their search for a missing Lancaster County man. Investigators believe 74-year-old Jerry Cauthen walked away from a residential care center in Heath Springs.

“At this point they haven’t found anything, which is good, as far as him still being alive, that’s what we’re still hoping for,” explains Cauthen’s son David.

Investigators believe Cauthen walked away from Heath Springs Residential Care Center Friday afternoon. He had just moved in the day before.

David Cauthen says he saw his father only hours before he disappeared. He says he seemed his normal self, given his condition.

“As far as being in his Alzheimer’s state, yeah. And he was very calm when I left him,” Cauthen says.

Search crews have focused along Flint Ridge Road, where Cauthen was seen walking Friday afternoon.

Over the weekend, bloodhounds picked up a scent, then lost it. A SLED aerial search also turned up nothing within a six mile radius, family says.
“Some people’s asked, can we go somewhere else, but we don’t know where to go,” says Cauthen’s stepson Wesley Threatt.
Threatt says investigators now believe someone may have offered him a ride. They just don’t know where they might have taken him.