The dead body of a Meigs County Sheriff’s Office deputy was retrieved from the Hiwassee River on Thursday hours after searchers found his submerged patrol car.
Just after 9 p.m. Thursday, the neighboring Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook that MCSO Deputy Robert “R.J.” Leonard’s body was pulled from the water.
Deputy Leonard arrested a woman at 9:51 p.m. Wednesday and sent a radio message 12 minutes later that dispatchers couldn’t make out, District Attorney Russell Johnson said at a news conference Thursday.
Investigators believe the deputy mentioned water in his message and drove off the Blythe Ferry boat ramp in Birchwood, Tennessee. There is a history of similar accidents, particularly for people new to the area.
Deputy Leonard had recently moved to Meigs County from New York.
“The ones that go off, they don’t know the roads. They come in here too fast, and the next thing you know they’re in the river,” Mr. Johnson said.
When Deputy Leonard didn’t check in later Wednesday, the search began. Investigators found his patrol car first, with the driver’s side window open and an arrested woman, as of yet unidentified, dead in the backseat.
“So we’ve got a person in the back of the vehicle. We think it was the female subject that was arrested. We don’t have an identification or confirmation on any of that. We have a lot of mud in the front seat but no body in the front seat,” Mr. Johnson said.
The woman was handcuffed, he added.
Deputy Leonard, 35, had moved to the area with his wife and five kids, according to Knoxville CBS affiliate WVLT-TV.
“Deputy Leonard had been on the force about two months. He was doing a pretty good job. A really good job. It’s just hard when the department is like a family,” Meigs County Sheriff Jackie Melton said.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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