A Troup County man has been charged with the murders of two Newnan men, according to the Troup County Sheriff’s Office.
In addition to the murder charges, Joshua Nutt, 39, of Lower Big Springs Road was charged Thursday with robbery and possession of a firearm during certain felonies, according to the sheriff’s office.
The bodies of Marcus Lee Caswell and Travis Lodato, both of Newnan, were found earlier this week at West Point Lake.
“My investigators have worked non-stop since they received this case on Monday and to have a suspect in custody in a matter of days speaks to their dedication to the job and I cannot thank them enough for their hard work” Sheriff James Woodruff said in a news release
The two men whose bodies were found in the lake were roommates who lived in Newnan, according to multiple reports.
Police found a man’s body floating in West Point Lake on Monday, according to a news release from the Troup County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities arrived at 5:23 p.m. Monday and saw what appeared to be a body in the water.
After recovering the remains, they discovered the man had been shot in the head, according to the sheriff.
The first victim was identified as Caswell, 46.
On Tuesday morning, Lodato, 31, was located in the same area of West Point Lake and was killed the same way, according to the Troup County Sheriff’s Office in a Facebook post.
Investigators think the two men were killed elsewhere and their bodies were dumped in the lake, according to Sgt. Stewart Smith, the public information officer for the Troup County Sheriff’s Office.
Caswell and Lodato drove motorcycles to West Point Lake over the weekend, according to WSB’s Steve Gehlbach.
“Talking to people connected to them, they came down here to the Troup County area sometime Saturday or Sunday, for reasons (unknown), still trying to figure out at this point,” Smith told WSB.
The Troup County Sheriff’s Office continues to search for the victims’ motorcycles that they rode to the area, WSB reported.
West Point Lake is in Southwest Georgia, just outside the city of LaGrange.
The bodies were sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab for an autopsy, the sheriff’s office said.
It is an active investigation, and anyone with information is asked to contact the Troup County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division at 706-883-1616 or Crime Stoppers at 706-812-1000.
Rich Barak of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this report.
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