Missing Georgia Teen-Aubrey Carroll-Found Alive and Well. This Georgia Mystery is Solved!

Usually, my posts are about unsolved mysteries in Georgia-ones that we would love to solve but cannot seem to do so. This one is different, and it is perhaps the first post I have made here about one that was solved.
In May 2016, in Spaulding County (Griffin), about 45 minutes south of Atlanta, 15 year old Aubrey Carroll seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. On May 24, 2016, fifteen year old Aubrey left school early and did not show up at home when he was supposed to do so. He lived with his father in Griffin. There were rumors that he decided to leave and go to Jones County, Georgia where he has family, but no one had seen him there either. After being missing for a few days, a huge search that involved the Griffin County Sheriff's Department and the FBI began. There were some rumors that surfaced of where he might have gone, and there were family members who searched for him all over the areas they thought he might have gone, but no word. Finally, in April of this year, authorities made contact with his family to report that he was indeed alive and well. He apparently left and was living "off the grid" in the western part of the United States. The authorities had been tracking him for the last little while, and they had even found a Facebook page he had set up under an alias name. He was alive, well, in no danger, and seemed to be happy.

Photo courtesy of SCSD. Aubrey is pictured above with Lt. Mike Morris (Left) and Spaulding County Sheriff Darrell Dix (right).

   Aubrey has since made contact with his family, even visiting some of them in Georgia. The GRIP, a local news outlet in the Griffin area carried the full story of Aubrey's return home. Lt. Morris and Sheriff Dix said that their jaws dropped at hearing some of the stories Aubrey told about his travels and what all he experienced. However, nothing they report indicates that Aubrey was in any danger nor was in any trouble. The link to the story is here:
 https://the-grip.net/2018/04/17/missing-spalding-teen-aubrey-carroll-returns-home/

We are glad you are safe, Aubrey, and we hope you get to spend time with your family to make up for lost days. Stay safe and happy, young man. This was a true happy ending to a Georgia Mystery!

Body of Creature Washes Ashore at Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge-Hoax, Mistaken Identity, or Altamaha-Ha?

For those that have read my blog before, you know that I have posted about a Georgia legend known as Altamaha-ha. Also called, Altie, the alleged creature is said to be Georgia's Loch Ness Monster, which, is itself a tribute to one of the most well-known cryptids in history. As of recent, the press has been abuzz with a recent report involving the carcass of an unidentified creature that washed ashore at Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge on the Georgia Coast.
Media outlets such as USA Today carried the story. National Geographic also offered up a story about the carcass and presented speculations as to what it might be. Some experts claimed that the whole thing was nothing more than a not so complex hoax. Others claimed that the carcass belonged to a frilled shark, albeit the absence of gills causes some problems with that interpretation. Other marine scientists express concern with lack of a body to examine, and the fact that the legend of Altamaha-ha pervades in the area, and that it is too coincidental.

There are some issues with this report. For one, there is no body left to examine-only photos. Second, the carcass does seem quite similar to models made of Altie, and third, the first two issues combined with the fact that this washed up in an area not too far from the birthplace of the Altie legend, make it somewhat unbelievable.

Here is the National Geographic report and photos submitted. You decide!
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/mysterious-sea-creature-washes-ashore-georgia-monster-spd/