Homeless man found dead under Augusta bridge where he lived

Matthew Watkins (via Facebook)

Date: September 27, 2023

City workers found a homeless man dead underneath an Augusta bridge on Tuesday morning where he had apparently been living, authorities said.

Matthew Watkins, 43, was found by a city grass-cutting crew around 10 a.m. under the Calhoun Bridge along the 2200 block of Broad Street at the Calhoun Expressway.

The body of a young was found by a city grass-cutting crew around 10 a.m. Tuesday under the Calhoun Bridge along Broad Street.

It appears he had been dead for a day or so and was living under the bridge, which is not far from the Neptune Dive and Ski business on Redwood Drive. Authorities found several personal belongings, such as clothes, several pairs of shoes and toiletries.

The Criminal Investigation Division and Coroner responded to the scene. The man’s body will be sent to the GBI lab for autopsy, Coroner Mark Bowen said.

If you have a picture to share, please text it to 803-487-3224.

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.