Body recovered from the Apalachicola River

Searchers today recovered the body of a Blountstown man who disappeared in the Apalachicola River Saturday after a boating accident near Chattahoochee.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Lt. Gary Applewhite said the body of Jefferie S. Rector, 28, Blountstown, was found near where the accident occurred. The accident occurred approximately one mile south of the Chattahoochee boat landing.

FWC Investigator Tony Brunson said Rector and Mark Hamilton, 29, of Marianna, were headed north on the river Saturday afternoon in a 15-foot aluminum boat, powered by a 75-horsepower motor, when they attempted to go around a navigation buoy. Brunson said it's unclear exactly what happened, but as they made a sharp turn, the vessel hit a wake or "something" that caused both men to be ejected.

Neither man wore a life jacket.

Hamilton told officers, after he and Rector were ejected, the boat began circling wildly and struck Rector. Hamilton was pulled from the river by a fisherman who was nearby.

Rector's body has been turned over to the medical examiner's office in Panama City.