Body found in Wabash River ID’d as Illinois man who drowned

GRAYSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Western Indiana police say an Illinois man whose body was found in the Wabash River apparently drowned while trying to swim across the river.

Sullivan County Sheriff Clark Cottom said Thursday that a fingerprint comparison determined that the body found Wednesday is that of 49-year-old David Overbay of Lawrenceville, Illinois.

An autopsy found Overbay’s preliminary cause of death to be drowning. Toxicology tests are pending.

Cottom says investigators determined that Overbay’s truck became disabled when he ran off into a ditch near Graysville, Indiana.

He had no cellphone and left his truck on foot and was last seen walking toward the river.

Cottom says that for undetermined reasons, Overbay apparently tried to swim across the river, which he says “has undercurrents that without warning, can pull a person under.”