Georgia man faces charges in death of Jackson native

A Douglasville, Ga., man has been charged with murdering a 21-year-old Southeast Missouri native from Jackson whose remains were found July 14 along a gravel road in Carroll County in Georgia.

John Edward Woodham, 28, was arrested Thursday night in the death of Dylan Joseph Polen, Carroll County sheriff's Lt. Shane Taylor said Friday. Authorities have not released the cause of death or suspected motive.

Polen had been living in Atlanta when he disappeared July 9. His body was found near the community of Whitesburg, Ga., a town of fewer than 600 residents in Carroll County.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab ruled the death a homicide shortly after the remains were found in an area where trees had been cut for pulp wood.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Polen had been dead for some time and was identified through some tattoos on what was left of his body and through DNA and dental records.

Polen left Jackson two years ago, according to relatives, to work in Los Angeles with a Philadelphia-based Christian mission program, Mission Year. He was stationed in September 2003 at New Life Covenant church in Atlanta. Leroy Barber, director of Mission Year in Atlanta, said Polen left the program in January.

According to the Carroll County Sheriff's Department, a county resident discovered Polen's body lying next to a gravel road near a tree-harvesting area. Officials say they don't know how the body got to that location.

The Associated Press and Carroll County Times-Georgian contributed to this report.