A search and rescue team has recovered the body of a Greenwood fisherman who had been missing for more than a week.
Leflore County Emergency Management Director Fred Randle said the body of Wesley Haddon surfaced Saturday.
It was a boater who came across Haddon’s body, Bobby Norwood, Leflore County fire coordinator, said, who assisted with the search along with other members of Leflore County Fire Rescue and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
Norwood said he was notified of the boater’s discovery at 1:38 p.m. Saturday, and then authorities went to retrieve the body.
Randle said Haddon’s body had been found about a mile and a half away from where Haddon’s boat had been found.
Haddon was 75.
A commercial fisherman who sold his haul out of his pickup truck on Grenada Boulevard, Haddon had a boating accident Nov. 6 while out on the Yazoo River, Randle had said.
Two days later, Haddon’s boat was found about six miles south of the Greenwood boat landing, according to Randle.
The body of Wesley Haddon Jr. was found Saturday on the Yazoo River. The 75-year-old commercial fisherman had been missing since Nov. 6 following what authorities say was a boating accident. This photo of Haddon was taken in March by Greenwood attorney Moss Melton, a fellow boater.
A group of family and friends congregated Saturday afternoon at the boat landing, awaiting members of the search and rescue team. Several thanked the authorities for the hard work they put into the search, allowing both family and friends to finally have closure.
Chester Jubran of Greenwood, who was one such person who was at the boat landing, said she had known Haddon for about 30 years. She had worked at the Bowie Lane Fish Market and would purchase Haddon’s haul to sell.
“Wonderful. The best friend anybody could’ve had,” Jubran said of Haddon. “A true southern gentleman.”
Jubran said that on Saturday she went to pray at a cross made by Greenwood resident Allen Moses, who had also known Haddon, that was erected right by the boat landing and overlooking the Yazoo River.
Minutes later after her prayer, Jubran said she received a call that Haddon’s body was found, giving her and others closure.
Her prayer had been answered, she said.
• Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
