A fisherman is still in shock Monday after finding the body of a woman along the Fort George River access near Little Talbot Island over the weekend.
The fisherman, who did not want to be named, told First Coast News that he was flounder-gigging alone near the parking lot of the river access at 4:30 a.m. Saturday when he happened upon the body along the water's edge.
"She was laying on her side, out of the water. Her head was at the water's edge, so I wasn't sure if she was alive or not," he said.
He had hoped that the woman had simply passed out and tried to wake her, but a grizzly detail left him shaken.
"Then I saw some blood, and that's when it really set in that it was bad," he said.
Unsure if the woman was killed or if other's were watching him, the fisherman backed up onto the sandbar to call 911.
"I realized it was something deadly, and it just felt like evil," he said. "And I thought, 'Oh my God, something has happened to this girl' ... and I could have just walked up on it. Could have been in the middle of it. "
It wasn't until after he called 911 that the fisherman knew for sure that she was dead. He says he had returned to the water's edge to find the woman's body partially submerged under the rising tides.
Homicide detectives with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrived at 11100 Heckscher Drive to speak with the witness. The body was soon taken in by a medical examiner, and the scene was eventually cleared, but the fisherman says he still has questions.
“I want to know what happened here because I come out here a lot," he said. "I want to know how this went down because I want to be aware of the danger, if any, in this area.”
The woman's name, age and manner of death have yet to be disclosed. First Coast News has reached out to JSO for more information.