Car discovered underwater in Lake Graham

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — Madison County authorities investigate a car that was found in Lake Graham Saturday morning.

“It was just one of those strange calls you didn’t expect on a Saturday morning, but here we are, trying to find the answers,” said Tom Mapes, Public Information Officer for the Madison County Sheriff’s Department.

A fisherman’s sonar system detected a large mass under the waters of Lake Graham in east Madison County.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Madison County authorities were called around 11:25 a.m. on Saturday to take a look.

After the Madison County Fire Department’s Dive Team investigated it, the large mass turned out to be a car.

“The car was located in about 12 to 15 feet of water,” said Madison County Fire Chief Eric Turner.

Authorities say the car was in the lake for an extensive amount of time.

“It’s been there quite a while, so the silt and the mud is gathered around the bottom of the car,” Turner said. “That makes it a lot more challenging.”

Authorities say the challenge was that the car had deteriorated so much that they kept pulling parts off of the car in the process of trying to remove it from the lake.

“We actually had to get some divers to dive down in order to get it hooked well enough in order to pull it out to the bank,” Turner said.

Later in the afternoon, divers from Hardin County’s Fire Department were called in to assist Madison County crews.

After about five hours of working the scene, crews removed the car from the lake just after 7 p.m. Saturday.

A wrecker picked up the car shortly after that.

Authorities will do a full-scale investigation on the car once it’s taken from the scene.

“When we find that information, like a VIN number or a license tag number, we’ll be able to find out who the owner was and more information to find out to give the public the details,” Mapes said.

There’s no word yet on if anything was found inside.