Update: Sheriff releases name of man found dead at Mill Pond
Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith has released the name of the man whose body was found floating Monday afternoon by law enforcement officials in Apalachicola’s Mill Pond, just off Scipio Creek.
In a Facebook post, the sheriff said the body has been identified at that of Derwin Black, 22. He said Black had lived in the county “for a while,” but was not originally from here. He described the man’s death as “an isolated incident” that did not pose a threat to the general public.
Apalachicola Police Chief Bobby Varnes confirmed that the body of a young Black man was pulled from just in from the mouth of the Mill Pond, in the marsh, by officers with his department, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement , sometime after 3 p.m. Monday, when it was reported by an onlooker.
He said that the body appeared to have been in the water for days. Varnes said the investigation by the three departments in continuing. He said the man’s body was transported to the medical examiner’s office in Tallahassee.
Varnes confirmed that rumors that a noose was found around the man’s neck, or a knife in his body, were untrue.
Smith said those with information on the matter to call Detective John Nunez at the sheriff’s office.
Details to follow as they become available.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.