A Tennessee sheriff’s deputy who went missing Wednesday night after making his first arrest was found dead on Thursday, hours after his patrol car was recovered from the Tennessee River.
Deputy Robert “R.J.” Leonard texted his wife a single word – “arrest” – around 10:00 p.m. Wednesday evening, NBC News reported. Just before he texted her, he notified dispatchers that he had arrested someone and was taking them to the Meigs County Jail, District Attorney General Russell Johnson said at a press conference Thursday morning.
About 12 minutes after Leonard contacted dispatchers about the arrest, he again reached out and said something that couldn’t be determined over the radio. Authorities, using analytics, said Leonard maybe have said “water.”
Leonard’s wife received his text message, but he never received her response.
Authorities used the wife’s Life360 location-sharing app data to help investigators find Leonard, after he failed to respond to a status check from dispatch.
On Thursday, Leonard’s patrol car was pulled from the Tennessee River near the Blythe Ferry boat ramp, Johnson said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. The patrol car was found upside down in the river, with a female body covered in mud in the back seat. The woman has not been identified, but is believed to be the person Leonard had arrested and was escorting to the county jail.
The trunk of the vehicle had been blown open due to the pressure, and the driver’s side window was rolled down. Leonard was not in the vehicle, but his body was found later, though it is unclear where his remains were found or what condition they were in. He has been taken to the Knoxville Regional Medical Examiner’s Office, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office said on X Thursday night.
“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 at his afternoon press conference. “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.”
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Chief Deputy Brian Malone also spoke at the press conference, saying that Leonard had only been with the department for “a couple months.”
“It’s a hard time for us here. It’s something we never deal with here in Meigs County,” Malone said through tears. “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.”