Body of Sizemore was found on Monday

SOUTH POINT — While the Lawrence County Republican party’s annual Lincoln Day dinner is typically a celebratory mood, the event started on a somber note, following news from earlier in the day on Monday.

Lawrence County Sheriff Jeff Lawless was on the schedule to lead the gathering in the pledge of allegiance and, before he did so, he addressed the two-day search that had taken place to locate the body of a missing Rock Hill High School student.

Teams working with the sheriff’s office had discovered on Monday the body of Chase Sizemore, 18, in a pond off State Route 650, where he had gone missing at a gathering in the Strip Mine area on early Sunday.

Lawless asked the room to keep Sizemore’s family in their prayers and thanked the agencies who had assisted in the search.

“We are thankful for all the resources that were made available to us,” Lawless said of the help in the search.

Divers from the Cabell County Disaster Response Team located Sizemore’s body. Also assisting the sheriff’s off in the search were the Ashland Fire Department, the Ironton Police Department, Hamilton and Upper township fire departments, the U.S. Forestry Service, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ross County Search and Rescue, the Barboursville Fire Department, Kentucky K-9 Training, OSHP Air Division and numerous citizens on foot and ATVs.