Body Spotted By Students Identified

MACON COUNTY, Ga.,None — The body found last Friday along a rural Macon County road has been identified as 21-year-old Michael Edwin Haegele of Mauk in Marion County.

A friend of Haegele's contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Wednesday afternoon after seeing media reports indicating the body found in Macon County had had surgical implants in his right thigh.

The friend told the GBI that he had not heard from Haegele since May 1, and that he knew that Haegele had had implants in his leg. The GBI crime lab was able to identify Haegele from latent prints lifted by agents from his room at the mobile home where he lived.

The friend told agents that Haegele had no immediate family members and an extensive search by GBI Intelligence analysts failed to locate any living family.

Haegele had lived in Mauk for a little over a year. He had lived at one time in the St. Louis, Missouri area where he graduated from high school, officials said.

Haegele's body was found May 7 at 5:50 p.m. along Butler's Mill Road in rural Macon County near the Macon-Taylor County line after the body was spotted by a passing school bus driver and students.

The investigation into his death, which has been ruled a homicide, is continuing by the Macon County Sheriff's Office and the GBI Regional Office in Americus. Anyone with information on Haegele is asked to call the GBI tip line at 1-800-597-TIPS.

WSBTV