Missing man found dead near his home in Eatonton

Dec. 31—EATONTON, Ga. — Michael Maddox enjoyed walking the streets of Eatonton and talking to himself as he looked into the sky.

He frequently did that sort of thing.

"That's what he would do all day," said Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell. "He seemed to enjoy walking up and down the streets just talking to himself."

Cardwell said he was a nice man who was familiar to lots of local people that saw him and tried to strike up a conversation with him.

"He never bothered anybody and never got into any trouble," Cardwell said.

Maddox apparently walked along Oak Street for the last time on Monday, Dec. 19, the last time he was reportedly seen alive.

He didn't return home as he had done countless times before.

Five days later on Christmas Eve, Maddox's sister officially reported her brother missing with the Eatonton Police Department.

Cardwell established a search party to look for the missing Army veteran. Several firefighters from the Eatonton Fire Department joined police officers, family members and friends.

The search turned up no trace of Maddox.

A friend walking in the same area that was searched days earlier stumbled across Maddox's lifeless body shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday.

And now a full-scale joint investigation into the cause of his death is underway by officers with the Eatonton Police Department and agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Region 6 Office in Milledgeville.

Putnam County Deputy Coroner Andre Williams said when he arrived on the scene that he determined Maddox was deceased.

Maddox would have celebrated his 62nd birthday on Wednesday, Cardwell said.

The victim's body was discovered laying near a brick home on the 100 block of Baynes Street, Williams said.

The deputy coroner said it appeared to him that Maddox had been dead for several days.

Williams said the body had no sign of physical injuries.

He said there was nothing to indicate what might have caused his death.

Williams was asked if the cold weather may have been a contributing factor.

"This happened way before the cold weather came," Williams said.

He said he believes Maddox died several days before he was reported missing.

An autopsy was expected to be performed by the state medical examiner's office at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Laboratory in Decatur this week. The autopsy is expected to help determine the cause and manner of Maddox's death.

Cardwell said Maddox was living in the basement of the dwelling where his body was discovered outside and that he used to live there.

The house caught fire a couple of months ago. The damage from that fire is still visible from the dead end street.

Eatonton Fire Chief Eugene Hubert said the house caught fire on Oct. 16.

"He (Maddox) said he set trash on fire to burn it up, and it got away from him and caught the house on fire," Hubert said. "He did not mean any harm."

The police chief, who also serves as chief investigator, said members of Maddox's family told him that they had tried to get Maddox to leave the house but he kept going back to the house that had been gutted by fire.

Cardwell said members of the search party that was formed to look for Maddox after he was reported missing on Christmas Eve walked the same area that Maddox had been known to walk.

"We called it off later that night because of the cold weather and because of the dark," Cardwell said. "I came out Sunday on Christmas Day and looked around again myself."

Brian Hargrove, assistant agent in-charge of the GBI's office in Milledgeville, said Special Agent Christian Nesci went to the scene to assist Cardwell and other police officers involved in the death investigation.

"The city of Eatonton is going to miss him," Cardwell said.