*******MEDIA RELEASE*******
On December 26th,2023 at approximately 9:38 PM Marshall County Rescue Squad was paged out to I-24 Tennessee River Bridge for reports of a suspicious male that officers believed may have jumped from the bridge into the river below. Marshall County Rescue Squad along with East Marshall Fire Department and South Marshall Fire Department moved into deployment mode and got boats in the water. Marshall County Rescue Squad immediately requested mutual aid from the McCracken County Rescue Squad and Trigg County Rescue Squad. All Squads and fire departments searched until the early morning hours of the 27th. The search was halted at that time because no reports of a missing person had been filed matching the description of the individual and no abandoned vehicle was found on I-24. To date no witnesses have come forward that observed anyone jumping from the bridge. Since the evening of the 26th Marshall County Rescue Squad along with multiple other agencies from surrounding counties and states have searched land and water for countless hours daily.
One week after the report of the possible jumper Marshall County Rescue Squad will suspend active search efforts to locate the individual. Marshall County Rescue Squad and mutual aid at this time feel as if they have searched all areas to the best of their ability on land, air, and water where the individual may be if indeed, they jumped. Marshall County Rescue Squad utilized tools such as their Towfish Sonar – Hummingbird – Panoptix LiveScope Scanning Sonar System, Tracking and Cadaver Dogs, Drones, and dragging of the Tennessee River in the area where the possible individual was last scene. During this search, approximately 104 personnel were utilized putting in a total of 495 man-hours.
Marshall County Rescue Squad’s strategy will now be reactive, meaning they will respond to added information as it is reported and validated. Marshall County Rescue Squad will ask that anyone with information about this situation contact the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office. at 270-527-1333.
The Marshall County Rescue Squad would like to thank the following agencies for their assistance in this search and the mutual aid that they provided.
Marshall County Emergency Management
South Marshall Fire Department
East Marshall Fire Department
Marshall County Sheriff’s Department
McCracken County Rescue Squad
Lyon County Emergency Management
Trigg County Search and Rescue
Calloway County Drone Team
Scott County Mo/ SEMO Search Dogs
Four Rivers K9 Search, Rescue, and Recovery Team
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife
United States Coast Guard – Kentucky