{"id":483515,"date":"2026-02-22T08:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483515\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T08:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:29:08","slug":"investigation-underway-after-missing-72-year-old-jacksonville-navy-veteran-found-dead-in-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483515\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation underway after missing 72-year-old Jacksonville Navy veteran found dead in Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">LIBERTY COUNTY, Ga.  \u2013 A 72-year-old Jacksonville woman who had been missing for more than a week was found dead in Georgia, according to an update from the Liberty County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Margaret Hanley, a Navy veteran, was last seen Monday, Feb. 8, according to her family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The Liberty County Sheriff\u2019s Office later announced that Hanley\u2019s vehicle, which her son said was a 2001 Toyota RAV4, was found off a road in Hinesville, Georgia, stuck in the mud. Hinesville is about an hour southwest of Savannah in Liberty County<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Investigators said a body found by the vehicle was confirmed to be Hanley, and her family has been notified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Hanley\u2019s son, Jomo Thompson, previously said his mother had been dealing with short-term memory loss. He suspected she might have been the victim of a scam after noticing unusual bank account activity, including checks written out to a person for large amounts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cMy mom is very frugal, so that\u2019s cause for alarm,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office said Hanley\u2019s last known location was identified in Georgia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Thompson said that was concerning because his mother usually didn\u2019t travel farther than the local Walmart. He added he isn\u2019t familiar with anyone she might know in Georgia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The Liberty County Sheriff\u2019s Office said this remains an active and ongoing investigation, and Hanley\u2019s vehicle has been secured and will be impounded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">JSO said a Silver Alert was not issued for Hanley because she was last identified in Georgia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">JSO said it reached out for assistance in Georgia and shared information through the National Crime Information Center. They also issued a \u201cBe on the Lookout\u201d alert in Liberty County, where Hanley was last seen.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIBERTY COUNTY, Ga. \u2013 A 72-year-old Jacksonville woman who had been missing for more than a week was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,12471,681,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-483515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-duval-county","tag-georgia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}