Statesboro firefighters discovered the body of a man after responding to a fire call Thursday afternoon on South College Street.
    Statesboro police Detective Sgt. James Winskey said firefighters were called around 2 p.m. to a wooded area on South College Street near the railroad tracks just south of Eagle Health and Rehabilitation, where they found the body of 24-year-old Otto James Rountree III, of Statesboro, according to multiple sources.
    Winskey could not elaborate on why the fire department was called instead of police, except to say that firefighters “responded to a fire call."
    Bulloch County Public Safety Director Ted Wynn said Bulloch Central 911 operators dispatched the call to the Statesboro Fire Department for a brush fire.
    Bulloch County Deputy Coroner Chuck Francis said Rountree had a “known psychiatric past.”
    As of Thursday evening, detectives had not determined the cause of death, and the body was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab in Savannah for an autopsy, Francis said.
    The case remains under investigation, Winskey said.
    He also declined to give more details on the body’s condition.
    Winskey is leading the investigation.
    Further details will be available today, he said.
     
    Holli Deal Bragg may be reached at (912) 489-9414.