WATERLOO, Ala. – Knoxville police said Saturday they found the body of a white female in the Clinch River near where an Alabama woman vanished last weekend.
Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk said a fisherman discovered the body Saturday morning, within five miles of the motel where 21-year-old Jennifer Lee Hampton was last seen the night of Sept. 19.
Hampton, a waitress and former homecoming queen from Waterloo, Ala., was in Knoxville on a business trip.
Police removed the body from the water and took it to a forensic center for identification and an autopsy. They've notified Hampton's family of the discovery.
"All I can say now is that it was a young white female," DeBusk said.
Police treated the disappearance as a missing persons case and searched woods near the Days Inn where she was staying.
"From the very beginning, we recovered evidence that would suggest she was a victim of foul play, and that hasn't changed," DeBusk said.
Hampton is employed by Mama Blue's Buffet in Florence, Ala., and had traveled to Knoxville with her boss and two other co-workers to help open a restaurant.
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