Farmers harvesting soybeans find missing woman’s body in field, Tennessee cops say
The body of a Tennessee woman who was missing for a little over two weeks was discovered by farmers in a field, deputies said.
Haywood County deputies responded to a Nov. 1 call from farmers who said they may have stumbled upon “possible human remains,” according to a message from Haywood County Sheriff Billy Garrett Jr. shared to the Crockett County Sheriff’s Department’s Facebook page. The farmers were in the area to harvest soybeans, according to the post.
After an investigation from deputies, detectives and a coroner’s office, the find was determined to be a human body, the sheriff said.
The body was sent to the medical examiner’s office in Memphis to be identified, in addition to determining a manner and cause of death, according to the post.
Five days later, the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that the body was “positively identified” as a local missing woman: Dana Davis. The 52-year-old was reported missing Oct. 15 from her Brownsville home, WREG reported, and the sheriff’s office put out an alert for those in the area to help find her. Others on Facebook shared information on Davis’ missing status.
In an update on the search two days after Davis was reported missing, a screenshot of a comment from Garrett was posted to the sheriff’s office Facebook page. The “exhaustive” search enlisted the help of the Jackson Police Department using a helicopter and the nearby state prison sending bloodhounds to track Davis, Garrett said.
Davis was believed to have been having mental health issues when she went missing, Garrett said in the post. She could have left her home on foot and gotten disoriented or been picked up by someone, the sheriff said.
The cause and manner of Davis’ death had not been determined as of Nov. 6, the sheriff’s office said, and her family members were notified of her death.
Brownsville is about 60 miles northeast of Memphis.
This story was originally published November 7, 2023 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Farmers harvesting soybeans find missing woman’s body in field, Tennessee cops say."
