After more than 36 hours of searching, Regina Smith, the 51-year-old woman who went missing at Noccalula Falls, was found dead Tuesday morning, according to the city of Gadsden.

“The fire chief contacted me, let me know we had a body in the water. It’s something as a father, you wish you never have to experience. So we just notified the family. Very tough situation,” Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford said at a press conference.

What we know about the search

Authorities said Smith was last seen Sunday evening by her husband, Jerry Smith, and her children on a raft in the Black Creek area, according to the Montgomery Advisor.

The Black Creek Trail is a wide, accessible gravel trail that follows the path of Black Creek 1.7 miles from the falls to the bottom of the mountain.

“Apparently. They found a float that was down in there. She got on it, floated down the creek a little ways and then hit rapids. And once you get to those, it’s not good,” Gadsden Fire Chief Vance Brown said at the press conference.

The family called first responders around 8 p.m. Crews searched until about 1:30 a.m. Monday. when they stopped due to storms in the area.

Search crews resumed the search on Memorial Day but did not locate Smith.

Around 7:45 p.m., the Gadsden Fire Department made a final drone flight with an infrared camera over the gorge with no results, according to Michael Rodgers, city of Gadsden public affairs coordinator.

Every two hours throughout the night, rotating crews of firefighters used a UTV to travel down and search the main trail and adjacent areas, according to Rodgers.

“We sent crews out every two hours. One crew, they would search for two hours, then we would rotate another engine crew. At 6 this morning, we started our two man team, two engine teams back. Police department had 10 guys. Jefferson County came in, there was about 21 of those guys,“ Brown said.

At 6 a.m. crews from the Gadsden Fire Department and Police Department resumed full searches, Brown said.

There was an inch of rain overnight, which was a continuing factor in the search as the creek waters were high, Rodgers said in the statement.

Smith’s body was found on Tuesday morning.

“We put boots on the ground, started a grid search and that’s how we were able to be within line of sight of each other. Typically about 10 feet. That’s when we were able to get closer to the water and that’s when we found them,” Brown said.

He said he suspects that Smith’s body was underwater, but floated to the surface.

Brown said there are about 24 crew members currently in the gorge doing a rope retrieval of Smith’s body about 200 feet below the mouth of the gorge, Brown said.

It will take about two hours to get Smith’s body out of the gorge because of the rainy weather, he said.

“We encourage folks to stay out of the gorge. It is absolutely treacherous,” Brown said.

It’s important to remember that there’s real people involved in this, and this is a tragic loss,“ he said. ”Our hearts and prayers and sympathy are with the family at this time.”