January 11, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
The search is over for a Putnam County man who went missing Wednesday afternoon on Center Hill Lake.
The body of 66 year old Scott Northrup of Silver Point was recovered at around 11:35 a.m. today (Thursday) about 100 yards from where his fishing boat was found Wednesday night in the Florida branch area of the lake about a mile across from Floating Mill Access.
TWRA Officer Tony Cross told WJLE that Northrup’s body was found in about 34 feet of water. Sonar and an underwater camera aided TWRA officers and members of the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad in the search.
Northrup. a Tennessee Tech University professor emeritus of chemistry and faculty advisor to the Tech bass fishing team was reported missing Wednesday evening after he failed to return home by 3:00 p.m.from a fishing trip to the lake.
“We received the call around 5:00 p.m. Wednesday of the missing boater and found his vehicle and trailer at the Hurricane Bridge boat ramp. We then went out on the lake and at approximately 7:30 p.m. located the fishing boat that he was in. There was no one on board. There were no signs of foul play. We searched until around 2:00 a.m. (Thursday) in the Florida branch area of Center Hill Lake where the boat was found, ” said Officer Cross.
TWRA was assisted in the search Wednesday night by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad joined the search later this morning (Thursday).