Body identified as man wanted on drug charges

CORNING, Ark. -- Police have identified a body found in the Current River as a Poplar Bluff, Mo., man who was wanted on drug charges.

Authorities said fishermen found Roy Wayne Hines, 31, submerged in the river last week just south of the Missouri border.

Reports from authorities in Ripley and Clay counties in Missouri say that deer hunters spotted Hines and another man making methamphetamine in woods near the river on Nov. 20.

"They just stumbled across them," Ripley County chief deputy Adam Whittom said.

Police later arrested one of them men, Joseph Oliver, 20, of Illinois, as he was walking along a rural highway. Oliver told police the two fled when they saw the deer hunters and that he last saw Hines swimming in the Current River.

Authorities said a medical examination of Hines showed no signs of foul play and that initial reports show that the man drowned.

Hines faced warrants in Ripley County, Mo., charging him with manufacture and possession of a controlled substance.

He was also wanted on misdemeanor warrants in Clay County, Mo.