ADEL — A body found in a Cook County pond in 2019 has been identified as a Berrien County man.

Jeremiah Garretson of Nashville has been identified, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation statement released Monday.

Garrettson was 36 years old when his remains were found. He was a 2014 graduate of Wiregrass Georgia Technical College.

On March 4, 2019, the GBI received a request from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to assist with a death investigation.

At about 8 a.m., Cook County 911 received a call about a body found in a pond on Ed Lindsey Road in Lenox, the GBI said.

Deputies found the body of a white male in the pond. Department of Natural Resources rangers assisted in recovering the body. The GBI Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and determined the cause of death was accidental drowning, according to the GBI.

During the initial investigation, agents searched missing person reports from Cook, Berrien, Tift, Lowndes, Colquitt, Lanier and Brooks counties with no matches. Agents obtained DNA and fingerprints from the remains and sent them to the GBI crime lab but no matches were found.

A GBI forensic artist created a sketch of what the person may have looked like, which was eventually distributed to the public. The sketch provided multiple leads, none of which produced a match. A case was also opened with the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

In late 2022, the GBI began working with Othram, a company that uses advanced DNA testing to solve cases. Based on the DNA, a genealogical search produced investigative leads that led to Garretson’s identification. Garretson’s family was notified in May about the identification.