Autopsies for Canal Body & Painter Who Collapsed at Augusta National

The body was discovered floating in the Augusta Canal at 12th & Telfair Streets (shown here)

Date: October 01, 2021

The Richmond County Coroner’s Office has ordered an autopsy on a man found floating Friday afternoon in the Augusta Canal at 12th and Telfair Street.

In an unrelated case, Coroner Mark Bowen also ordered an autopsy on a contract painter who collapsed while working at Augusta National Golf Club earlier this week. He later died, and his name was not immediately available.

In Friday’s death, 69-year-old Kenneth Dawson was found floating in the canal at 12th and Telfair streets. The coroner said Dawson was homeless and might have died from a “possible drowning.” Dawson’s body was removed from the canal by the Fire Department and he was pronounced dead on the scene at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Bowen said.

Kenneth Dawson (pictured) was described as homeless by Coroner Mark Bowen

Dawson will have an autopsy done the GBI Lab.

In the Augusta National case, the coroner said he is waiting on results of the autopsy, which was ordered since there was no obvious cause of death and the painter had no known medical history. The death was believed to have happened on Monday.

Greg Rickabaugh is the Jail Report Contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at greg.rickabaugh@theaugustapress.com.


[adrotate banner=”25″]

What to Read Next

The Author

Greg Rickabaugh is an award-winning crime reporter in the Augusta-Aiken area with experience writing for The Augusta Chronicle and serving as publisher of The Jail Report. He also owns AugustaCrime.com. Rickabaugh is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina and has appeared on several crime documentaries on the Investigation Discovery channel. He is married with two daughters.

Comment Policy

The Augusta Press encourages and welcomes reader comments; however, we request this be done in a respectful manner, and we retain the discretion to determine which comments violate our comment policy. We also reserve the right to hide, remove and/or not allow your comments to be posted.

The types of comments not allowed on our site include:

  • Threats of harm or violence
  • Profanity, obscenity, or vulgarity, including images of or links to such material
  • Racist comments
  • Victim shaming and/or blaming
  • Name calling and/or personal attacks;
  • Comments whose main purpose are to sell a product or promote commercial websites or services;
  • Comments that infringe on copyrights;
  • Spam comments, such as the same comment posted repeatedly on a profile.