Body round in river identified as woman missing for 8 months

EASTOVER, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say a body found this past weekend in a submerged car near a boat ramp on U.S. Highway 378 east of Columbia is a woman missing for eight months.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said in a statement Monday that 53-year-old Charlene Fulton died from drowning.

Deputies say a man fishing saw the car around 11 p.m. Saturday and called police.

Investigators are still trying to determine how Fulton and the car ended up in the Wateree River, which forms the boundary between Richland County and Sumter County.