Body identified of man found in Cedar Creek in May as Randy Richardson

Testing continues to determine official cause of death

Polk County Coroner Tony Brazier announced last week the identity of a body found in Cedar Creek in May.

Brazier said that following consultation with the medical examiner’s office at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab on June 16, he was able to positively identify the body found on May 20 as Randy Richardson, 55, of a Cedartown address.

Richardson went missing on Mother’s Day and was found in the creek near Knight Road.

Brazier said his remains were identified through medical records, DNA matches with family members and dental records due to the level of decomposition.

He ordered that the body be released for burial to Gammage Funeral Home so burial plans can be made.

“Now his family can lay him to rest and have some degree of closure at this point,” Brazier said.

His death remains under investigation as suspicious, Brazier said, until further tests deter- mining his full cause of death can be completed.

“The tests that I request are extremely sophisticated and very detailed… some those take longer time to estabilish than other tests,” Brazier said.

Though no immediate evidence of foul play has been found, Brazier said these further tests should rule out any suspicion of homicide and determine how Richardson died.

“Rule that out first, and once we know for sure there is no foul play involved, then we can look at the differentials between all the tests and figure out what happened,” he said.