A search for a missing Selma man came to a tragic end Thursday as the body of Arthur Lee McWilliams was found in a wooded area behind a house on Johnson Street.

Family members had last seen McWilliams when he left his resident at 221 Hickory Ave., and his daughter Burnette Brown said it wasn’t uncommon for him to walk the streets picking up cans.

“He would normally be in and out all day when he was walking around to pick up cans, and he would always tell us where he was going,” Brown said. “But on Sunday, he just picked up and walked out.”

Speaking with the Times-Journal moments before her father’s body was found, Brown said he had been picking up bags of the aluminum cans almost every day of the week since he moved to Selma four years ago.

“I hope everybody can say a prayer for him,” Brown said. “I just want him to come back home safe.”

Brown said McWilliams left his house at around 10 a.m. Sunday, and it was early that afternoon when she and other members became concerned and contacted police.

In a release by the Selma Police Department Tuesday, asking for help in finding McWilliams, he was described as being hearing-impaired and had medical conditions that caused him to have chronic seizures.

Officers with the Selma Police Department’s criminal investigation unit joined volunteers in searching several locations McWilliams had been known to search for loose aluminum cans.

Sgt. Curtis Muhannad with the Selma Police Department said a resident in the 700 block of Johnson Street found the body behind their home and that a full investigation into the cause of death had already begun.

In a message to the Times-Journal Thursday afternoon, Muhannad said an autopsy was set to be performed Friday to determine the cause of death.