Zachary Smith was 19 years old and lived in Eatonton. Deputies found him face down in Rooty Creek late Friday afternoon. The spot sits in the Flatrock area of Putnam County near U.S. Highway 441. Someone called in the tip around 6 p.m. after spotting what looked like a body in the water.
Sheriff Howard Sills said his team got there quick. Zachary had several gunshot wounds in his chest. Shell casings lay nearby on the ground. The scene pointed straight to a shooting right there by the creek.
Michael David Ludwick, age 20 from Madison, is the one charged with pulling the trigger. His dad Joshua David Ludwick, 38, faces the same murder charge. Investigators say the father was there when it happened and then drove his son away from the creek.
Both men got picked up in Madison around 11 that night. Officers from Morgan and Walton counties helped make the arrests. No one has said what set the whole thing off. The case stays open while more work gets done.
Zachary grew up around Eatonton. Friends and family knew him as a regular 19-year-old with plans still ahead. Now those plans stop at Rooty Creek. The people closest to him are left sorting through the sudden hole he left.
Putnam County does not see this kind of call every day. A young man found shot in a creek draws attention fast. The shell casings and the two arrests give the investigation a clear starting point. Still, the full story of that Friday afternoon has not come out yet.
The charges against Michael and Joshua remain just charges for now. They will have their day in court. Meanwhile Zachary’s name is the one people in Eatonton and Madison keep repeating when they talk about what happened down by the water.
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