Deputy was ‘rude’ to family of missing teen after body found. NC sheriff apologizes
A 50-minute video on YouTube detailing an out-of-state dive team’s search for a missing 17-year-old in North Carolina sparked backlash against local law enforcement who viewers said were “rude,” “condescending” and “heartless.”
Now the sheriff’s office is apologizing.
Oregon-based divers Adventures with Purpose discovered the car and body of Nicholas Allen on Oct. 1 after the family asked for their help, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. The team immediately contacted the sheriff’s office after making the discovery.
“The response from the investigator with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office was not empathetic or kind to the family of Nick, and also was not welcoming or appreciative to Adventures with Purpose,” Sheriff Richie Simmons said Tuesday in a statement on Facebook. “Please know that the interaction you had with our investigator does not represent how we train our officers, and his actions are not in accordance with our expectations.”
Nicholas Allen was reported missing on Feb. 20 from his home in Linwood, about 50 minutes northeast of Charlotte.
The teenager was believed to be driving a black Dodge Journey with the license plate number HCV-9093, WFMY reported at the time. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office spent several days searching for the car by helicopter.
The family eventually turned to Adventures with Purpose for help in May, diver Jared Leisek said on Facebook.
Adventures with Purpose is a dive team and film crew that have recovered cars, treasure and garbage from bodies of water across the U.S., according to its website. It also has assisted on missing persons cases. The team has a YouTube channel with 482,000 subscribers where they share the stories of their recoveries.
On Oct. 9, it posted a video titled “SOLVED 8-Month-Old Missing Person Case (Nicholas Allen).” The 50-minute video shows Leisek’s interactions with Allen’s family as they attempt to search the Yadkin River for the car.
The dive team spent just 30 minutes with side-scan sonar before finding three cars in the water, including one that appeared “to be in the shape of a Dodge Journey,” Leisek said.
Leisek and another diver recovered the car’s license plate and brought it to up to the family, the video shows. The windows were up, but both divers said they were certain Allen’s body was inside.
“I can’t talk right now. The emotions are really high here right now,” Leisek said after they emerged from the dive. “100% we’ve identified the car. The windows are up on the car.”
“He’s in there,” another diver named Sam responds.
The team then called the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and an investigator responded to the scene.
“I don’t love being recorded,” he said after exiting his truck, the video shows.
The investigator then repeatedly asked the divers and family how they know it’s the car, demanded to see the license plate and said he couldn’t “guarantee there’s a body in there.”
“I asked you guys, I begged you guys to check this river,” Allen’s mom tells him at one point in the video.
“It’s been checked several times,” he responds.
Adventures with Purpose and law enforcement then spent the next several hours at odds over whether a tow truck could be brought in to bring the vehicle up, if an additional dive team was needed, and whether there was a body inside.
“We cannot play the game of he’s not in here,” Leisek is heard telling officers. “This is starting to upset me at this point, this is upsetting the family.”
A local volunteer dive team was eventually brought in and the car was pulled from the river, the video shows.
Leisek and his team questioned the unfriendliness of that team when it arrived, and commenters said the sheriff’s deputies handled the situation poorly.
“First officer was a jerk,” one person wrote. “Condescending, arrogant, and seemingly uncaring. This is the behavior and attitude that causes issues with the public.”
Several others called the officers rude.
“So sorry the local authorities were so rude to you, and the family, don’t allow their poor manners to stop you from helping others in their time of need,” someone said.
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office expressed its “deepest sympathies” to the family in the statement Tuesday and promised to “do better in our interactions with grieving families in the future.”
“There are no excuses for this type of behavior and we will work tirelessly to ensure this type of behavior is never repeated by another member from this office under my administration,” the statement reads.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 6:32 PM with the headline "Deputy was ‘rude’ to family of missing teen after body found. NC sheriff apologizes."
