May 29, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
72 year Rick Lee has been found after having been missing for several hours today (Wednesday).
According to Sheriff Patrick Ray, Lee was found off Tucker Ridge Road about two miles from I-40 in Putnam County where he had a wreck in his truck. Lee’s vehicle had left the road and plunged down an embankment out of view of passing motorists during daylight. However before 10 p.m. a passerby saw a glow from the truck’s lights and discovered the wreck. Lee was with the truck and though injured was alert and talking.
The search for Lee began shortly after 2:30 p.m. when he called a friend from his cell phone reporting that he had been in a wreck but that he didn’t know where he was and that it would take a helicopter search to find him because he was in the woods. No one had heard from Lee since and efforts to reach him by cell phone were unsuccessful.
Lee’s friend reported his call to 911 and a search began in the general area north of Hurricane Bridge along Highway 56 where Lee’s cell phone pinged.
The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department led the search for Lee with help from the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad, Tennessee Highway Patrol, and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.