August 14, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
An investigation continues into the death of a person found inside a car last Friday afternoon in a cornfield on New Bildad Road near the DeKalb/Warren County line.
Investigators are awaiting results of an autopsy to determine the person’s identity as well as the cause of death.
Could the case be connected to a recent missing person investigation?
According to the Southern Standard, Warren County Sheriff Jackie Matheny, Jr. said his department had been requested by the Smithville Police Department to assist in the search effort for a missing person, Rebecca Maxfield, who had been reported missing in DeKalb County last month.
During a search along New Bildad Road Friday afternoon, Sheriff Matheny told the Southern Standard that his investigators located a car in a cornfield containing the body of a deceased person and notified DeKalb County authorities after concluding that the car was not in Warren County but across the county line in DeKalb County.
Again, results of the autopsy have not yet been released and a positive identification of the body has not been made.
Sheriff Patrick Ray issued the following prepared statement.
“At approximately 3:23 pm on August 9, 2024, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department received a call of a body that was found on New Bildad Road Smithville. Members of the Smithville Police Department, DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, Warren County Sheriff‘s Department, District Attorney General Offices from both DeKalb and Warren County and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents from both DeKalb and Warren County were summoned to the scene. The body which was located in a vehicle was found in a cornfield. The body was sent to Nashville TN for an autopsy by the State Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the identity of the person. No more details are available at this time. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Smithville Police Department, DeKalb County and Warren County Sheriff‘s Departments are investigating the case”.