Coroner identifies body found inside submerged vehicle in Hancock County
Courtney Johnson, a Louisiana woman who had been missing since Tuesday, was found inside her car when it was pulled from a waterway off Interstate 10 in Hancock County on Friday, Pearl River County coroner Derek Turnage confirmed Saturday morning.
Turnage said an autopsy will be performed this week to confirm her cause of death.
“It appears that she lost control of her vehicle and went off the interstate into the waterway there,” Turnage said. “So we’re just making sure that all the evidence with her body is consistent with that story.”
On Friday, authorities found a vehicle that matched the description of Johnson’s car, a 2016 Mazda 6, submerged in water in Hancock County, about 8 miles from the Louisiana state line.
A body was found inside the car, but on Friday authorities did not immediately confirm who it was.
Investigators said earlier in the week that foul play is not suspected in Johnson’s death.
Turnage is currently serving as the coroner for Hancock County as well as Pearl River County because Hancock County Coroner Jim Faulk’s certification was suspended in March for “potential failure to comply” with mandatory reporting requirements to the Department of Child Protection Services regarding child deaths.
Johnson, 34, was driving from her job in Baton Rouge to Biloxi to meet friends at the Golden Nugget Casino, but she never checked in on Tuesday evening.
She was reported missing on Wednesday to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office. St. Tammany detectives worked with the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office on the investigation in Mississippi.
Johnson’s family and friends also helped search for her, focusing initially along I-10 and I-12 inside the parish and in Mississippi.
On Friday, they gathered near the water as investigators looked for Johnson’s vehicle.
Her mother, Tracy Johnson, told WWL-TV that it seemed like her daughter had simply disappeared at some point Tuesday evening. The last time anyone spoke to her was around 6:30 p.m. that night, when she called a friend.
“There are so many things that run through your mind and you just want to cry but then you just want her to run into your arms. I do not wish this upon anybody to go through what we are going through,” Johnson told the television station. “This is my one and only child.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2021 at 9:57 AM.
