Relative finds body of missing man

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – After over two weeks of being missing, family members of Nate Johnson said his body was found by a relative behind the Tennessee Welcome Center on I-24 Saturday morning.

“We’ve cried so many tears that it’s like you know we don’t have the tears but then they come again,” Johnson’s Aunt Sandra Goodman said.

According to Trenton Police, Johnson was last seen on January 10th around an intersection on Highway 11.

Police said that’s when he was riding in a vehicle with a relative, asked to get out, and started walking down a train track.

“We were hoping he had jumped a train, something, that he, you know, trying to start a new life elsewhere, but he never would have left his children. He would’ve never left those babies,” Goodman said.

Goodman said Johnson had three kids.

“He was such a fun loving man,” Goodman said.

She said family had been searching for him everyday.

“We appreciate everybody’s thoughts and prayers. We’re going to need them for a while. This is something you don’t realize that it’s true, it takes a while for it to sink in. Just keep everyone in your prayers and we want to appreciate everything everyone has done,” Goodman said.

Chattanooga Police said investigators and the medical examiner’s office are working to determine the cause of Johnson’s death and whether or not there was foul play.