Madison Co. deputies investigate wrecked car abandoned in ditch

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — The Madison County Sheriff’s Office is looking for the driver and hoping to solve the mystery of a crashed and abandoned vehicle. Crews found the car early Friday morning but believe the wreck may have happened overnight.

The car was found crashed into a ditch, windows shattered, with no one inside.

“I was hoping nobody was in the car. If they’re in the car, they didn’t make it through that one,” neighbor Knox Crider said.

The incident happened on Old Medina Road near Cedar Hill Drive.

“The limbs on the trees are broken off up there, so I guess they jumped, and my front fence is torn up pretty bad,” Crider said.

Crider, whose property was damaged due to the wreck, says his wife was home Thursday night when she heard something strange.

“Said she heard a big boom about 11:30 and just kind of dismissed it as being a tree back in the woods, branches that fall back there all the time,” Crider said.

Around 7 a.m. Friday, first responders rushed to the scene after Crider found pieces of the vehicle in his front yard.

“I called her on my way home from work this morning,” Crider said. “I was right up here in the curb. She said there’s a front bumper in the front yard, the fence is all torn up.”

Fire officials said the engine was cold, leading them to believe it happened overnight. The Madison County Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation. Deputies plan to use the vehicle’s tag number and information found inside to identify the owner.

Neighbors say it’s a dangerous road and drivers should be more cautious.

“We talk about people fly down this road. They go 60, 70 miles an hour down through here,” Crider said. “I’m always afraid somebody’s going to go in there, and there it is.”

Madison County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Tom Mapes says there are no leads as to who the car belongs to, but deputies are continuing to search for the owner.