On July 9, Terrance Baker reported his sister, Takesha Denise Harris, 40, missing. After making several statements about ending her life recently, Baker became worried and sought out family members throughout the area to help locate her. Bainbridge Public Safety made a missing person declaration pending her location.

Monday, July 10, the unthinkable happened. The Decatur County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a possible deceased person floating in the water at Faceville Landing. Investigator Mark Esquivel said after getting the tip and description “it matched the missing person report and they thought it might be her (Harris).”

After several fishermen noticed the body and called for help, Sgt. Patrick Trolinger along with Deputy Michael Musgrove arrived at the scene. Sgt. Trolinger and Deputy Musgrove met the fishermen at the boat landing and left at the mouth of the river.

“She was floating about 200-300 yards south of us,” Trolinger said.

The men were able to recover the body and return her back to the landing. From there, she was taken to the morgue where a family member was asked to identify her.

While this is an extremely difficult time for her family, both of Harris’ daughters told officers she had recently become depressed and wasn’t herself. Harris’ mother had passed away recently, and according to her children she had recently discussed wanting to be with her mother. Baker said before Harris left she told him, “I’m going to end it. I’m never coming back.”

Sgt. Trolinger, along with other deputies and officers, is a crisis intervention technician. They received crisis intervention training and are able to provide people with a way to get them help. As technicians, they can call CRISIS or take them to the hospital.

Most importantly, Sgt. Trolinger wants to remind everyone, “You never know what’s going through someone’s mind. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. More people need to come out and say, ‘Hey, I’m depressed and things aren’t okay.’”