Body of deputy who went missing after making arrest found in Tennessee River

DECATUR, Tenn. (AP) — The body of a Tennessee deputy who went missing after making an arrest has been found in a river hours after his patrol vehicle was pulled from the water, officials said.

Crews recovered the body of Meigs County Deputy Robert “RJ” Leonard from the Tennessee River on Thursday evening, Chief Deputy Brian Malone told news outlets.

Officials said a body in the back seat of his vehicle is believed to be the woman he arrested Wednesday night after responding to a disturbance on a bridge. He radioed in that he had made an arrest. Minutes later, dispatchers received a garbled transmission from him, but they did not hear from him afterward.

A search ensued, and authorities used technology to determine his last transmission included the word water, District Attorney General Russell Johnson said. Officials used that and information from his phone’s location showing a spot near the bridge where he made the arrest and eventually found his patrol vehicle in murky water near the Blythe Ferry boat ramp, Johnson said.

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A female body covered in mud was found in the back seat. Johnson said authorities think it’s the woman arrested, but they had not confirmed her identity.

It wasn’t clear how his vehicle ended up in the water. But authorities said he was driving at night in an unfamiliar area and if he was distracted, he might not have turned right with the main road and could have missed warning signs before the pavement goes into the water.

“It is a dangerous spot because you kind of cross a hill and then you’re down to the ramp and into the water,” Malone said.

Authorities are operating under a theory that it was an unfortunate accident, Johnson said.

“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. “There’s skid marks and some scratch marks too, so there’s some indication he was on the brakes at least trying to stop.”

Other vehicles have gone into the water at the same location, Malone said. A female who drove into the water was safely recused from the same location a couple of months ago, he said.

“It’s a hard time for us,” Malone said. “Deputy Leonard had only been here for a couple of months, but he’d become part of our family.”