Union City, Tenn.–The search for missing 62-year-old Charles Baldridge of Troy resumes this morning after his vehicle was found in a ditch over the weekend. Baldridge, an employee of the Obion County Road Department, has been missing since January 8.
His vehicle was found Saturday afternoon near the intersection of Walker Tanner Road and West Reelfoot Avenue in Union City.
In a news release issued by Union City Fire Chief Karl Ullrich over the weekend, the Fire Department received a call about a motor vehicle accident with entrapment at that location.
Ullrich said, “Upon arrival, law enforcement personnel directed fire units to a pickup truck in a rain-swollen drainage ditch running parallel to Walker Tanner Road. Law enforcement verified the truck belonged to the missing man by its license plate.”
Fire personnel accessed the partially-submerged vehicle and determined there were no occupants.
UCFD personnel, the Obion County Rescue Squad and Obion County Sheriff’s Office, along with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Union City Police Department and Troy Police Department, began a joint operation to search for victims. Ullrich said responders combed the steep, muddy ditch banks and searched the swift-moving water under difficult and dangerous conditions. As darkness set in, the incident commander called for a suspension of search efforts until daylight for safety reasons.”
The fire department, rescue squad and sheriff’s office continued the search efforts throughout the day Sunday, too.
By 2:30 p.m. Sunday, the first half-mile of ditch had been searched twice from the water and many more times from the ditch banks. “We can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that there is no victim in this stretch of the ditch,” Ullrich said in his press release.
The Obion County Rescue Squad continued to search downstream of the fire department’s search area.
Search efforts are expected to resume Monday morning, with the Obion County Sheriff’s Office taking the lead using law enforcement assets, the chief said.
Union City Fire Department photo.