Published: November 19, 2008 11:58 am            

County teen found in car under bridge after wreck: Police were called Sunday morning, but teen not found until Monday morning

NEWTON — A Newton High School teenager, 16-year-old Jasmine L’Chay Curry, who had been missing since Friday night was found around 6:30 a.m. on Monday, due mainly to the heroic efforts of Decatur’s Caroline Goodman and her son, Brandon Gladney.

According to Newton County Sheriff Jackie Knight, the car was discovered underneath a bridge in a creek on Highway 15 North outside of Decatur by Goodman and Gladney, who happened to be passing by on their way to church.

Goodman had told local authorities she and her son spotted the car on Sunday morning while they were on their way to church and she immediately called 911 and told them the vehicle was down in a ravine under a bridge near Decatur Stratton Road.

“My son spotted the car as we were turning onto Highway 15 off Decatur-Stratton Road,” Goodman said. “We were in my husband’s truck so we were up high and saw the top of the vehicle, I guess the light hit it just right when we turned.”

Goodman said when she called 911 they said they would send someone out to investigate and call her back, but she never heard from them so she continued to church not thinking about it anymore.

“When we came back from church on Sunday afternoon it was already dark and we came on past it,” Goodman said. “Monday morning we got up to get ready for school and flipped the TV to Good Morning Meridian and heard about the girl and the description of the car. My son said ‘Mama that is the same car we saw under the bridge,’ so I called back to dispatch to see if anyone had checked to see if the car was still there when I called on Sunday and the dispatcher said they did but didn’t see a vehicle.”

Decatur Police and the Mississippi Highway Patrol went out to investigate but didn’t see anything after Goodman called, Knight said.

“I hung up with them and said to myself ‘I know I saw a vehicle there,’ so I left my son and daughters at home and got in the car and went back up there,” Goodman said. “I got out, walked around to the top of embankment and sure enough the car was still there so I called 911 again and told them the car was still there and I was still there looking at it and it matched the description of the car of the teenager that was missing.”

Goodman said authorities then came back out and the officer went down into the ravine and saw the car and then called for emergency help.

“When they realized she was in car, they had to cut the top of the car off to get her out because of the way the car was sitting on the bank they couldn’t get the doors open” Goodman said. “I didn’t know she was alive until I saw her move, she had been in that car all weekend.”

After being removed from the car, Curry was transported to Newton Regional Hospital and then to the University Medical Center in Jackson.

According to Knight, the Decatur Police Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol had checked it out on Sunday but didn’t see a vehicle because it was hard to see from the highway.

Goodman said there was no way you could have seen the car from the highway without getting out and looking because it was very hard to see.

“I talked to Jasmine’s mother and grandmother on Monday and they told me she is doing ok now,” Goodman said. “She had a lot of bruises in the torso area, some bleeding from the ears because of a bump on her head and two broken legs. They had to put rods and pens in her legs but hope to have her up moving some this week.”

Curry told her family she must have slept through the whole weekend because she doesn’t remember anything that happened but Goodman remembers and said it was a miracle on Sunday morning when her son spotted the car and now Curry is going to be ok.

        

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