Knoxville towman finds dead man in van after towing it

Editor's Note: There is an updated version of this story here with new details from the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

A Floyd's Wrecker Services employee says he found a man's body in a wrecked van he towed from South Knox County on Tuesday morning after Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers told him it was empty.

Around 2:30 a.m., R.J. McMahan was dispatched to tow a white 2006 Dodge Caravan that "had been wrecked with the airbags blowed" near E. Gov. John Sevier Highway and French Road, Floyd's Wrecker owner Terry Floyd told the News Sentinel.

The THP troopers working the crash told McMahan the vehicle was unoccupied and that the driver had "fled back to wherever he was coming from," McMahan said.

When McMahan returned to the lot with the van in tow, he opened the door of the vehicle to put it in park, as he had countless times over his six year career as a towman.

That's when he saw something he said "scared the hell out of" him – a man's legs on the floorboard, protruding limply from under an airbag.

McMahan said he was in shock.

THP investigating failure to discover body at South Knox crash scene

"All I seen at first was feet. It kind of tripped me out, and I had to look again to make sure I had seen what I seen."

He pushed the airbags out of the way to find a man he described as in his mid-40's. He twice felt for a pulse.

"He looked dead to me. ... He was limp. He was cold. His mouth was busted up a little bit," McMahan said, pausing for a moment. "It was not nice."

McMahan said he has seen bodies before.

"I've worked fatality wrecks before, but it was a shock not knowing (the body) was there. If I'm pulling up on a fatality scene, I already know it's going to be a fatality scene. But opening up the car door and not expecting it, it was a shock."

McMahan said he called THP and told them what he had found. A few minutes later, officers arrived at the lot, 135 Hawthorne Ave., and pulled the body from the vehicle.

"We were all really in shock that he was in there. I mean honestly you couldn't really see in the vehicle the way it was sitting and the airbags were, he was completely in the floor, so the airbags had him covered up."

Authorities with THP's Criminal Investigative Division were at Floyd's Wrecker Service until around 4 p.m. Tuesday, and "about eight or 10 of them" were at the crash site, Terry Floyd said.

THP spokesman Lt. Bill Miller said Tuesday afternoon he didn't "have much information on that incident," but said he had heard about it and knew it was under investigation. Miller said he would get back to the News Sentinel with details but had not responded to emailed questions as of Tuesday evening.

THP spokeswoman Megan Buell did not return requests for comment.

"I'm just sorry for the family," McMahan said. "Christmas is right around the corner. I just don't know what else to say. I feel sorry for the family."