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Police seek boyfriend of woman found near Chattahoochee River

ROSWELL, Ga. — Roswell police are renewing their efforts to find the boyfriend of a woman whose body turned up on the banks of the Chattahoochee River a few weeks ago.

A visitor to Vickery Creek Park found 20-year-old Markeesha Taylor's body in early May. According to the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office, Taylor died of an accidental drug overdose.

According to her family, Taylor, who lived in Decatur, was an Oklahoma native who moved to Atlanta about a year ago and was pursuing a career as a professional hip-hop dancer.

Since the discovery of her body, police say they have been trying to talk with her boyfriend, Tariq Smith. Smith’s real name is Mustafa Tariq Reddick. Police say Smith hasn’t returned any of their phone calls.

Channel 2's Mike Petchenik spoke with Taylor's family the week her body was found. Her family members told him Smith called them in the middle of the night that Sunday to tell them Taylor's body had been found in the river. The family said they were suspicious of how he knew.

“If you don’t have anything to do with it, if you’re not involved, if you care so much about my niece, why aren’t you talking to authorities?” Taylor’s aunt said to Petchenik the week she was found.  “Why aren’t you coming forward?  Why aren’t you telling your side of the story?”

Petchenik also found tweets from Smith the day before Taylor’s body was found saying he was heading to the police station to file a missing person’s report. According to police, he never did.