A search for a missing Greene County couple has ended after two bodies were found in a burned pickup truck on a property in a neighboring county.
Sheriff Donnie Harrison said deputies have called off the effort to locate Steven Rhodes and his wife Melissa Meeks Rhodes, who were reported missing on New Year’s Eve. Harrison said the woman’s daughter called authorities out of concern for her mother after she could not get in touch with her.
The couple was last seen around 11 p.m. Monday and was believed to be traveling in Steven Rhodes’ black modified Ford pickup.
Deputies used their own trucks and enlisted the help of several community volunteers to look for the couple. A system of storms in the area early Tuesday morning complicated the search.
“We were told Rhodes had a tendency to take back roads,” Harrison told AJC.com. “With all the rain we've had, it didn’t make it easy for patrol cars.”
Once the rain passed, the sheriff called in the help of the Georgia State Patrol’s aviation unit. Around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, deputies got a call that a truck matching the description of Rhodes’ was spotted on a property across the Taliaferro County line.
According to Taliaferro Sheriff Marc Richards, the truck was found burned. A shotgun and spent shells were also found at the scene, he told Channel 2 Action News Wednesday afternoon.
It appears to be a murder-suicide, he told the news station.
Authorities are waiting on an autopsy report from the GBI Crime Lab to make a positive identification and determine a cause of death. Harrison said he could not release any further information on the condition in which the bodies were found.
Deputies are still investigating two scenes related to the missing persons case, the Rhodes’ home in Greene County and the property in Taliaferro.
Anyone with information is asked to call the GBI at 706-595-2575 or the Taliaferro County Sheriff’s Office at 706-456-2345.
A GoFundMe page was established to help the family with funeral costs. More than $2,400 had been raised as of Friday afternoon.
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