LUMBER CITY, Ga. – The grandmother of the Jacksonville-based Navy sailor who was found in a Georgia river said Thanksgiving will be difficult for their tight-knit family, many of whom served in the military.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is asking for help from the community after the body of 25-year-old Devin Jeter was found.
The GBI said a fisherman found Devin Jeter, of Scottsdale, Georgia, dead at a boat landing along the Ocmulgee River near Lumber City on Monday. Lumber City is about an hour north of Waycross in Telfair County.
The medical examiner determined there were no apparent injuries to Jeter’s body, but investigators are still waiting on more forensic tests to learn his cause of death.
Perry Jeter said her grandson wanted to be just like his grandfather who was a master sergeant in the military. Devin Jeter enlisted in the Navy along with two other siblings who joined the armed forces.
He rented a 2024 silver Jeep Compass at the airport with a Florida license plate of EWAG47. The GBI said he was headed to Jacksonville in the rented vehicle.
“He rented a car to drive back because he had been looking for a car [in Jacksonville] to buy,” Perry Jeter said. “I understand he had called his commanding officer said he would be late a day, and they have pictures of him at the airport renting the car and driving off, so I don’t know if he stopped for gas and someone took the car or what happened. All I know is my grandson is gone.”
When Jeter didn’t show up for work on Nov. 8, his co-workers alerted his family, prompting the missing person’s report.
The rented Jeep has not been located.
Perry Jeter said the entire family is devastated.
“It’s just rocked our world that the holidays are coming up, and he was planning on coming back for Thanksgiving and instead of having a family gathering, we’re having a gathering for a homegoing for Devin. It’s just so sad that this happens to any family,” Perry Jeter said.
The GBI urges anyone who may have seen Jeter or the silver Jeep Compass between Atlanta and Lumber City to come forward. Any information, no matter how small, could be vital in solving this case, investigators said.
Contact the GBI regional investigative office in Eastman at 478-374-6988, or share tips anonymously via the GBI’s tip line at 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at GBI’s tip submission page, or through the “See Something, Send Something” mobile app.