The body of someone who may have been arrested was found when a Miegs County sheriff’s patrol vehicle was pulled from the Tennessee River, but the deputy is missing, officials said Thursday.
Deputy Robert “R.J.” Leonard was last heard from Wednesday night shortly after he arrested someone and was on his way to the jail. His patrol car was pulled Thursday from the water in the area of the Blythe Ferry boat ramp, District Attorney General Russell Johnson said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
The vehicle was found upside down with the trunk blown open from the pressure. A female body covered in “a lot of mud” was discovered in the backseat, Johnson said.
Johnson said officials believe the body is that of a person who Leonard had arrested and was bringing to the jail when he was last heard from, though that has not been confirmed. She has not been identified.
No one was found in the front seat of the patrol car, but the driver’s side window was rolled down. Search efforts are ongoing, but Johnson said officials “don’t think the outcome is going to be good for Deputy Leonard.”
Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett extended his prayers and condolences Thursday to the families of the person found in the vehicle and the deputy.
Leonard responded Wednesday night to a possible disorder on the bridge over the Tennessee River. He arrived on the scene and told dispatchers around 9:50 p.m. he was taking a person to the Meigs County Jail, Johnson said Thursday morning.
The next and last time dispatchers heard from Leonard was 12 minutes later. He said something over the radio that could not be immediately understood. Analytics later determined Leonard may have said the word “water,” Johnson said.
Around the same time he radioed in, Leonard also texted his wife one word: “arrest,” Johnson said, noting that the arrest was Leonard’s first. She responded, but officials confirmed her text did not go through. Her Life360 location sharing app would later help investigators determine his last known location.
After Leonard failed to respond to a dispatch status check, agencies from around Meigs County joined to assist search efforts.
“We’re operating under the theory that it was an accident, he missed his turn, he wasn’t familiar and he was doing other things that may have caused him to go into the water,” Johnson said Thursday afternoon. “There’s some skid marks and some scratch marks too. So there’s some indication that he was on the brakes at least trying to stop.”
“It’s a hard time for us here. It’s something we never deal with here in Meigs County,” Chief Deputy Brian Malone said tearfully Thursday afternoon. “Deputy Leonard had only been here for a couple months, but he’d become part of our family. At this time, I just ask that you pray for us.”
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