Sydney Martinez, editor in chief

On Sept. 15, a Berry Alert was sent out regarding law enforcement searching for a missing person on Main Campus at 1:49 p.m.

Sergeant Brittany Warner of the Floyd County Police Department (FCPD) said the missing person found on Berry’s campus was a former student, from over 10 years ago.

His family made a report to the police department after he made suicidal comments at noon Tuesday.

 “He made some suicidal comments to some family members and we were made aware that he was on Berry’s campus by pinging his cellphone,” Warner said.

Warner said that the police department used a cell phone tower on campus to locate the former student’s phone.

“We pinged his cellphone and we were able to get a general radius of how far away he was from a cell tower on campus,” Warner said.

Each year, the Rome-Floyd SWAT team receives navigation training on Berry’s campus. Because they were on the scene, they were able to help the police department locate the alumnus before law enforcement arrived at the scene.

“Our SWAT team was actually doing some [navigation] training out there, so they were already on scene when we got the call,” Warner said. “We located [the former student] a little after 2 o’clock.”

The alumnus’s body was found in the forest off Viking Trail.

“We did find him deceased with self-inflicted wounds,” Warner said.

Chris Kozelle, director of public relations, said FCPD’s investigation is ongoing and Berry is unable to release details at the moment. The Carrier reached out to Berry administration, but no one was available for comment.

Support for students, faculty and staff is available through the Counseling Center and the Chaplain’s Office.

The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by dialing 988.

Stay tuned for more updates in the weeks to come.