A DNA test will have to be conducted to confirm the body pulled out of the Mississippi River Tuesday morning is that of a Hancock County man who fell from a tug boat one mile north of the Vicksburg bridges on Saturday night, said Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey.

“The body was in an advanced state of decomposition when it was recovered and he had no identification on him,” said Huskey. “I believe it’s him, because he had on the same clothes we were told the man was wearing when he fell in, but to be 100 percent sure we are going to have to do the DNA test.”

Huskey will take a DNA sample from the recovered body and one from a family member of the missing man — whose name has not been released by authorities — to the Mississippi Crime Lab in Jackson today. He said he did not know how long it would take to get the test results.

The body was first spotted Tuesday morning by the crew of commercial vessel The Kansas City, owned by WMS Marine of Greenville, about 4.5 miles south of LeTourneau Landing on the Louisiana side of the river — about 9 river miles from where the victim reportedly fell in.

The man was a worker on The John G. Morgan, a boat owned by Houma, La.-based Bayou Tugs and contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mat Sinking Unit, said Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace. Witnesses reported he was not wearing a life jacket when he went into the river. Commercial vessels on the river are required to have a life jacket on board for every passenger, but U.S. Coast Guard Supervisor of the Marine Safety Detachment in Vicksburg Lt. Teresa Hatfield said it is up to the tug and barge companies to set policies on when and where workers on their boats are required to wear a life jacket.

*

Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com