Publisher Bailey Hufstetler
On Wednesday night at about 9:48pm, Deputy RJ Leonard got on scene at highway 60 bridge for a call or a possibly male and female fighting on the bridge, or a male or female jumping in and out of traffic. Three minutes later at 9:51pm, the deputy announced on his radio that he would be transporting a subject to the Meigs County Jail. The next communication that the dispatch center received happened 12 minutes later at 10:03pm when some radio traffic came across that the dispatcher couldn’t understand. After analyzing the traffic, Meigs County Authorities believe someone might have been saying something about water.
After status checks on all of the deputies on duty via the radio from Meigs County Dispatch, Deputy Leonard was the only one that didn’t respond. That’s when the search began. Immediately other deputies and agencies responded to the area to look for Deputy Leonard and his arrestee. The arrestee is still unidentified at this time.
Thursday afternoon the focus of the investigation turned to the old Ferry Landing on Blythe Ferry Rd after scans and search efforts found a possible vehicle submerged in the water at this location. Eventually the vehicle was recovered from the Tennessee River revealing that it was in-fact a Meigs County Sheriff’s Deputy Police car. Unfortunately the female that he had previously arrested was in the back seat, however, Deputy Leonard was not found at that time.
Later this evening, Meigs County officials were able to confirm that Deputy Leonard’s remains had been recovered and sent to Knoxville.
A lot of questions still remain. How did this happen and how are officials going to make sure this doesn’t happen again? The Old Ferry hasn’t been operational since the 90’s. Driving down that road, in the dark especially, has proven to cause devastating outcomes for unexpected drivers. According to news reports and Meigs County officials, this has been an issue in the past.
RJ Leonard was a recent graduate from the police academy and had only been on the force for a few months. He was a husband and a father to several young children. Deputy Leonard was originally from New York.
This is a developing story. Stay connected with The Rhea County Observer to keep updated.
This article was written by Publisher Bailey Hufstetler.
