Video: The Search Continues for Fourth Passenger Involved in the Town Creek Crash

LEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Search efforts continue in Lee County for the fourth passenger inside the SUV that crashed into Town Creek over the weekend.

24-year old Amber Smith is the only passenger whose body hasn’t been found from the deadly crash.

This morning’s five to six mile search started on County Road 520 and wrapped up under a southbound lane bridge on Highway 45.

A road trip that started in Illinois with plans to end up in Florida, took a deadly turn in Mississippi.

The older model Tahoe was thrown in between two bridges and Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson says the depth from the bridge to the water was like hitting concrete.

“You could actually see on the railing of the bridge where the vehicle slid along the railing for quite sometime, you know, teetering which way it was going to go, back on the road, or go over the bridge, but you know, with the force and the speed variables, and the weight factor, you know, the centrifugal force took it over.”

At first, investigators believed they were searching for just three passengers.

Once they identified 30-year old Sean Haygood, 25-year old Heather Uhren, and 29-year old Terrance Wege Jr., their investigations led them to a fourth passenger.

“They found the identification in the vehicle of this fourth person and we contacted the police department and ran the information and it showed that they had been reported missing and according to family members and people that knew them, they were all in the car together at 10:00 or 10:30 Friday morning leaving on this trip.”

From their starting point takes about nine to eleven hours to get where they crashed, leaving the sheriff to believe it happened between midnight and 6 a.m. on Saturday.

Johnson says they’re hoping the black box recovered from the SUV will give them the information they’re looking for.

“If we can get the exact time that they went over the bridge, calculate that with when we had the rain that would have raised the water, then we may can come up with some definite answer. The body should float at this particular point in the search or whatever, so you know, all of this is critical whenever you’re dealing with the unknown.”

The terrain where they’re searching is another challenge.

“Doing overland search, you’re searching in the water, you know, searching the banks, just the vegetation on the side of the banks, you know, they’re going along in water just ankle deep and the next thing you know, it’s five or ten foot deep, so they’re paddling, next minute they’re trying to push the boat along some real shallow water. It was just the challenge of the actual terrain itself,” says Tupelo Fire Department Battalion Chief Scott Morgan.

Johnson believes they’ll find Smith at some point and time and will do whatever it takes to locate her body.

The Tupelo Fire Department and rescue team, the Lee County Sheriff’s Department, Mississippi Wildlife and Fisheries, along with other agencies are helping with the search.

Categories: Local News

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