Mystery as woman found dead in submerged car after cop's chilling final dispatch
A woman was found dead in the backseat of a submerged police car just moments after a cop made a chilling final dispatch call.
Robert 'RJ' Lenoard, a deputy with the Meigs County Sheriff's Office, was responding to a report of a man and a woman fighting on a bridge in Tennessee on Wednesday evening at around 10pm local time.
He took the woman, who has not been identified, into custody when he made a call to his dispatch saying he was driving her to the county jail. But just ten minutes later, communication broke down with the office and he failed to respond to a status check.
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Robert 'RJ' Leonard pictured with his wife (Facebook)At the same time, Leonard texted his wife saying, 'arrest,' with his wife responding, 'that's great.' However, his phone did not receive that text, according to Meigs County District Attorney Russell Johnson.
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Just moments later during a chilling last radio call, Leonard said 'water,' a word that authorities had to use 'special techniques' to decipher later. "Dispatch couldn't tell what he was saying,' Johnson said. 'We think he was saying, 'Water.''
On Thursday, the officer's car was pulled from the Tennessee River, and a body believed to be that of the woman was recovered. Lenoard's body was found a few hours later where the car was removed due to a strong current and dirty water making the search a lot harder, according to the sheriff's office.
Police discovered the officer's body (WTVC)Authorities are still trying to determine the identity of the woman but they believe it was the arrestee, Meigs County District Attorney Russell Johnson said.
"There was a whole lot of mud. There is a body in the backseat of the car covered by a lot of mud. A lot of mud on the front seat, but [there's] nobody in the front seat,'" he said.
A satellite tracking of his police car and a location-sharing app on his photo led the officers near the Tennessee River.
"They triangulated the last position of his phone and the Life360 that his wife has attached to his phone, and it appears that they're almost in the same location," Johnson said.
The officer made a chilling dispatch call moments before entering the river (WTVC)The incident is still under investigation but Johnson said the deputy appeared to be texting and talking on the radio while driving in horrendous conditions on a narrow road. "They are not well-lit. They are not well marked. They are narrow. If he's not paying attention, he could hit that water pretty quickly," Johnson added.
'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,' he said.
Officers paid tribute to Leonard who had graduated from the training academy in December last year and joined the force since then.
The submerged car was pulled from the river (WTVC)"Deputy Leonard had only been here for a couple of months, but he had become a part our family," Chief Deputy Brian Malone said in tears. "It's a hard time for us here. It's something that we don't ever deal with here in Meigs County," he added.
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Leonard's wife and children penned an emotional social media post after the loss of Leonard. "Our lives are forever changed. Please just keep praying. Pray harder than you ever have before. My heart is breaking for my kids, and I am just an absolute wreck. I will start reaching out when I can pull it together.
"For now, all I can do is cry. We love you forever RJ. 17 years isn't long enough with you," she wrote.
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