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Details released in the death of local missing teen
Ryan Haley
Ryan Haley

New details have been released in the death of Cumming 16-year-old Ryan Haley, whose body was found in Tennessee this weekend.

According to Detective Doug Mills, a spokesperson from the Monroe County Tennessee Sheriff’s Office, Haley was found along a heavily wooded wilderness trail known as the Benton MacKaye Trail in Tellico Plains, Tennessee.

He said that foul play is not suspected in the death, and thus far they consider severe hypothermia to be the cause of Haley’s death. 

Haley was reported missing by his family on March 21 and was located 10 days later after a coordinated search was made by the Monroe County Rescue Squad and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency after clothing and other items were found by the forestry service, Mills said.

So far, no explanation has been put forward for why the teen was in the wooded area, but Mills said that no camping or hiking gear was found with Haley or in the search for him.

“At this point we are convinced that (Haley) convinced the uncle of his friend to take him up to Knoxville so that he could get away for a while,” said Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Cpl. Doug Rainwater.

Rainwater said that, a 46-year-old man from Gainesville that allegedly drove Haley across state lines into Tennessee, has since been arrested and charged with transporting a minor across state lines without a parent’s permission.