Bodies of missing deputy, woman he arrested found in river

MEIGS COUNTY, Tenn. — The body of Meigs County Deputy Robert J. Leonard was found in an east Tennessee river Thursday evening after he went missing.

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Lenoard went missing Wednesday evening after he lost contact with the dispatch in Meigs County, located between Knoxville and Chattanooga, WDEF reported.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office said that Leonard’s body was located Thursday evening just before 7 p.m. He was found underwater where his vehicle was located and removed, WDEF reported.

His remains were taken to the Knoxville Regional Medical Examiner’s Office.

A woman was also found in the vehicle. District Attorney Russell Johnson confirmed in a news conference that Leonard made an arrest before he went missing, CBS News reported.

“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 nobody in the front seat,” Johnson said, according to WDEF. Johnson noted that the driver’s side front window was open.

“He could’ve been driving with the window down, could’ve got the window down when he first went into the water, we don’t know any of that, those are all just theories. I can tell you this, with the window down, the car is going to sink faster,” Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett said, according to the news outlet.

Early investigative efforts said that Leonard took the woman into custody at around 9 p.m. Wednesday on State Road 60, WVLT reported. That was when he crashed his vehicle by the Blythe Ferry boat ramp, which leads to the Hiwassee River.

He texted with his wife about the arrest he had made, then told dispatchers he was bringing the woman he arrested in, the news outlet reported.

The sheriff’s office shared a video on Facebook of multiple law enforcement agencies escorting his remains, according to CBS News.

“Sheriff Austin Garrett and the men and women of the HCSO would like to thank all our partner agencies who have dedicated many hours and resources to locate Deputy Leonard. We would also like to ask our community to keep the family of Deputy Leonard and his colleagues in the Meigs County Sheriff’s Office in your thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

“It’s a hard time for us here,” one sheriff’s office representative said in a news conference, according to WVLT.“Something we don’t ever deal with in Meigs County. We’re a small, rural county here. Deputy Leonard had only been here a few months, but he had become part of this family.”

It’s not clear how the vehicle ended up in the water. Authorities said, according to The Associated Press, that Leonard was driving at night and was not familiar with the area. It’s also not clear if he was distracted.

Leonard, 35, joined Meigs the County Sheriff’s Office in December and was from New York, Johnson said, according to the news outlet. Authorities say he is survived by his wife and five children.

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