[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Police have found the dead bodies of a Tennessee family nearly two weeks after they went missing.
According to the Hickman County Sheriff’s Office, Jeremy Cook, his fiancée Johanna Manor, and her 8-year-old daughter Adalicia had not been seen since January 16. After a 10 day search, the trio were tragically found in their truck at the bottom of a 100ft ravine.
Family members grew concerned when the parents failed to show up for work, and the little girl never returned to school. They asked police to perform a welfare check at the home on January 21, but officers left because they didn’t find anything suspicious.
Lt. Doddo of Hickman County Sheriff’s Office told WKRN:
“No suspicions. Nothing looked out of place, they end up leaving.”
On January 23, Johanna’s father filed a missing person’s report, prompting police to start pulling bank records and checking license plate readers in multiple counties. Investigators also tried to ping the family’s phones but were having difficulties.
Doddo explained:
“We had some misinformation about cell phone carriers which resulted in cell phones not being able to be pinged. This wasn’t a situation where we weren’t trying to ping the phone, this was a situation where one phone carrier is not a major brand phone carrier. They don’t have the resources that say AT&T, Verizon have.”
Officials were able to get a ping on Wednesday from the 19th of January, which led them to a 1.9 mile radius area off Interstate 840. Doddo continued:
“And we discovered a car about 30 yards to our left, kind of in a little bit of a ravine, which was hidden from sight.”
All three victims appeared to have died on impact.
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The Tennessee Highway Patrol said weather was responsible for the accident: they believe the truck struck a median concrete wall and tipped over it, falling 100ft and landing in thick undergrowth, where it stayed hidden from view.
Doddo theorized:
“There’s a very strong possibility that they either hydroplaned or, as we all know, bridges always freeze first. They could have hit a patch of ice and went up over the railing.”
Strangely enough, police said a witness had seen the accident and called 911, but left the scene before police arrived to tell them what happened. Lt. Doddo shared:
“This family would have been found a lot sooner had that person stuck around. Two troopers did respond there and they did not see anything. I can understand from the placement of the vehicle where the vehicle was why nobody would see the vehicle down there. You would either have to look under the bridge or lean over the side of the bridge and basically be underneath the bridge to see where they were. It was that difficult of a position to be seen from above. I don’t even think the helicopter would have seen them the way it was tucked up under the bridge.”
One resident who lives close to the site confirmed there was no obvious evidence that an accident occurred. He told the station:
“I was just down here yesterday and you cant see it, can’t see it. How it got there is the question. How? There’s no damage to the bridge.”
Doddo revealed that the victims’ families are naturally “devastated,” adding:
“You’ve lost almost an entire generation in one crash, that’s tragic in itself. This is just a tragic weather related accident.”
No words…
Our hearts go out to the victims’ loved ones at this difficult time.
[Image via News4 Nashville]
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