MOULTRIE — A newspaper carrier on Saturday morning discovered a murdered Hispanic on Smith Road.

Colquitt County Sheriff’s Investigator Capt. Hal Suber said a Moultrie Observer carrier was delivering newspapers on Smith Road and spotted what she thought was a dog lying in the roadway. When she returned to the scene about 4:25 a.m. Saturday, however, she found it was a Hispanic male lying in the road in a pool of blood. She called 911 after making the discovery

Colquitt County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene, and Suber said they initially believed the man, later identified as Manuel Rodriquez, 36, believed to be of Smith Road, was the victim of a hit and run accident. Georgia State Patrol troopers were called to the scene, and they began to investigate the incident as a hit and run.

The troopers, however, found Rodriquez had several stab wounds and lacerations, Suber said. It was then Colquitt County sheriff’s investigators and Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime scene unit investigators came to the scene.

Suber said the investigation determined Rodriquez had several stab wounds to his arms, chest, side and throat. An autopsy will be performed today in Atlanta. Anyone with information is asked to call the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office at 616-7430.

Rodriquez is the fourth person murdered in Colquitt County in 2009 after only one murder in 2008. Joshua Morey, 27, of Sale City, was shot and killed March 30 at a house on Edmondson Road, Perez Barcenas, 41, of 177 Cherry Ave., was found shot and killed in a driveway on Sardis Church Road April 25, and Curtis Lee Coasey Jr., 29, was shot and killed at an apartment on Third Avenue Northwest Oct. 24.