Eddie Smith was traveling along Allgood Road at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 6 when he noticed an unusual scene.
“I was riding down the road, and I looked down, I saw tire tracks,” Smith said. “I'm like, somebody ran a truck off in the quarry.”
The recent discovery of a stolen pickup truck submerged in an Oglethorpe County quarry has continued to unfold, thanks to Smith’s call.
Smith, who lives in Lexington and manages the Savannah Gray Quarry, was the first to report that there might be a vehicle under the water as he was headed to work that morning.
Smith has been working in quarries for more than 30 years and emphasized the rarity of the event.
“I come through here every day, multiple times a day, and I've never seen anything like this before,” Smith said.
Smith also described scuff marks on a tree near the quarry's edge. The size of the tracks along with the scuff marks led Smith to believe a truck had been dumped in the quarry.
He called the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office, which responded within minutes.
"Somebody may be hurt, somebody may be dead,” said Jennifer Mathews-Smith, Eddie’s wife. “You know, anything.”
Smith shared his observations with the deputies, and shortly after, the Elbert County dive team was called onto the scene, The Oglethorpe Echo reported Jan. 11.
The Comer Police Department, which had been searching for a missing vehicle, quickly made the connection.
Comer Police Chief Dennis Bell, along with the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office, has been working with multiple agencies and insurance companies to gather more information.
“We're pursuing several different angles of this thing to get the truth and the facts before we can go forward with it,” Bell said.
Douglas Spencer, Oglethorpe County’s emergency management administrator, said there are unique challenges posed by incidents involving quarries in Oglethorpe County.
“That's a specific hazard that we have,” he said. “We've developed specific responses with Elbert County because they have quarries there as well.”
Bell emphasized the time-intensive nature of the process, and he encouraged residents to be patient with the investigation.
”You gotta do search warrants to get phone records and Facebook accounts, all that stuff, it takes a long time to get it,” he said.
As Smith continues driving down the roads of Oglethorpe County, he makes sure to keep his eyes open.
“It's in his blood, you know, it's something that he's passionate about, he knows all about it, so he knows everything that goes on in that area,” Mathews-Smith said. “If he sees something that looks abnormal, he will report that.”