Gadsden police say they have identified the body of a man found this morning in the gorge beneath Noccalula Falls in Gadsden.

Sgt. Jay Johnson said investigators are still trying to determine the cause of death of Michael Joseph Gorgei, 32, an Albertville resident. Gorgei was reported missing yesterday to Albertville police. He was identified by relatives.

Police were called to the area around 8:30 a.m. The man was found dead, lying face up in an area approximately 300 feet from the falls, dressed in a shirt, shorts and shoes, according to witnesses. It was an area near two large boulders, along the water’s edge.

Investigators do not suspect foul play.

Sonya T. Johnson was the first one to spot the body. She had just dropped off her husband’s vehicle at the Falls park in anticipation for this weekend’s Wheels on the Hill car show. She then decided to walk to the scenic overlook near the statue of Princess Noccalula in the park.

“Something kind of spoke to me,” she said. “It was like, ‘Why don’t you go look at the falls?’ As I was looking down, I thought it looked like a body down there. And I thought, surely not.”

The park was so busy and the body seemed so out of place, she said, that other people standing around doubted what they saw, as she did. She tried to call a park employee over, but the employee said he was busy and would check in a few minutes, Johnson said.

“I don’t think they believed me,” she said. “Being such a distance, I thought it might have been a prank.”

But Johnson called her husband, who works for the Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit, and authorities were soon on the scene.

“I had never seen a body before,” she said. “I starting praying for that person’s family. I didn’t really want to believe it.”

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