Found Deceased TX - Emily Wade, 38, Ennis, Ellis County, 5 Jan 2019

[GarAndTeed]

My thoughts are with them. This is a very similar outcome to what my family experienced when my cousin was missing and found after an car accident a few weeks later.

So sorry for your loss, @Tssiemer ...

 

[Tssiemer]

So very sorry for your loss.

Thank you. It's what brought me to sleuthing Unidentified Does and missing people. I hope to help someone some day.

 

[Texsun]

It is unusual to take two wrong turns in the same direction. But she didn't have a smart phone either, and not everyone is good at directions.

Why her phone was turned off when she left the house is bugging me though. Probably nothing...

I agree and not sure how old the flip phone was, but maybe an inaccurate report.

 

[zecats]

In all the time I followed this case I never read where anybody mentioned floodwaters!

It was in the Heavy MSM 5 things to know about Emily article. I didn't see it the first time I read it either, but when I looked again to quote something else that was asked, I noticed it and reposted the article with that highlighted. Because her car was not found though, it puzzled me, I admit.

 

[zecats]

BRING EMILY HOME

Kathy Kaiser admin Bring Emily Home (and SIL)

With a heavy heart, our worst fears have been confirmed. Emily's body was recovered today from a tragic accident.

 

[Hippononymous]

What a sad outcome. I hope her autopsy is at least conclusive. My condolences to her family and friends.

 

[zecats]

I think she had to be lost and then came upon that overflowing bridge and maybe tried to back up or rush over!
I can just feel her fear!

Does anybody happen to know if the night was really dark or maybe lit up a bit by a full moon?

Moon Phases for January, 2019

Actually around that time it was New Moon, which would mean no light at all. I'm willing to bet there are no street lights around either. I think it must have been pretty darn dark and difficult to see the flooded road, maybe not til it was too late. JMO

 

[Gardener1850]

Marie Saavedra on Twitter

Picture of flooded road currently. Someone also posted on the family's page that the creek is 25ft in some places still!

That picture is worth 1000 words. At night she might not have realized the road was flooded until her vehicle was already a couple feet in the river. There are tire marks going toward the water like someone stopped (or tried to stop) just before hitting the water.
MOO.

 

[Gardener1850]

Marie Saavedra on Twitter
Keep driving down this dirt road and you’ll hit Chambers Creek, where the body believed to be missing Ennis mom Emily Wade was found. Police say water was high the night she disappeared and it still is. Are these signs enough of a warning? @wfaa

BBM. No, those signs are not enough of a warning, especially in the dark on a winding road where you go down a hill before getting to the "bridge". There should have been a bright orange road closed barricade in front of the bridge. MOO.

 

[Trudie]

BBM. No, those signs are not enough of a warning, especially in the dark on a winding road where you go down a hill before getting to the "bridge". There should have been a bright orange road closed barricade in front of the bridge. MOO.

I wanna know why that bridge has not been brought up to date. The county knows people are traveling across it to commute to work. They can’t work only on dry, low water days. They are asking for problems. If it can’t be replaced, they need RR like gates they can activate to close the road.
Disgusting!

 

[castilloisno1]

Flash flooding can happen within minutes and parts of roads can flood before others.

 

[Trudie]

Flash flooding can happen within minutes and parts of roads can flood before others.

Yup. And locals as well as LE know the roads that repeatedly flood. Why are people even allowed to get on them? If nothing else, put a LE vehicle on the road with lights on, blocking people from entering.
Hopefully the city of Ennis will get busy & make necessary repairs. This didn’t have to happen. Moo

 

[Trudie]

That picture is worth 1000 words. At night she might not have realized the road was flooded until her vehicle was already a couple feet in the river. There are tire marks going toward the water like someone stopped (or tried to stop) just before hitting the water.
MOO.

The brakes were probably useless by then. It’s just horrible. The darkness compounded everything, I bet.
We all know the glare from headlights hitting water.
A life gone because the city didn’t properly maintain the road, I think.
The signage, imo, is most inadequate. Was Em’ even able to see the signs? I doubt it. We don’t know how long the one sign has been knocked down.

Road Closures | Ellis County, TX Official Website
^^^^^^^^
Is it really up to the public to notify officials when a road needs to be closed?

Guess we are lucky in KY, the barriers go up as the forecast predicts heavier rains/runoff. People that go around.....well, that’s their choice, at least they were warned.

 

[swanniee11]

I've hit a puddle and knew right then, the thought of her driving thru that "by accident" I'm not seeing. I would think she "thought" she could make it thru that water feeling it was the same depth from the beginning yet it got deeper as she went. IMO

I still think she got out of the car. IMO

 

[Trudie]

Cynthiana flooding, 1997

Emily was probably just learning to drive when we had this flood.
Members of her family were impacted by this.
I just feel in my heart, growing up with frequent flash flooding, she would’ve never risked driving thru high water if signs were visible.
If growing up in this doesn’t stick with you, what would?


Can we all send an email to the commissioners, asking them to replace the bridge or at least get a large illuminated sign?

Commissioners' Court - Road & Bridge | Ellis County, TX Official Website

 

[castilloisno1]

Not being familiar with the road in all conditions played a part in this,I bet. I remember when I first moved to New Jersey,this terrible accident occurred in PA about 25 minutes from where we moved.
Jessica Savitch, the NBC television reporter who became one of the first women to anchor an evening network newscast, was killed late Sunday night after the car she and a companion were in drove into a canal in a rural section of Bucks County, Pa., and overturned.

According to officials in Bucks County, Miss Savitch, who was 35 years old, and Martin Fischbein, 34, the vice president and assistant general manager of The New York Post, were found inside a station wagon that was upside down in five feet of water in the Delaware Canal near New Hope, 30 miles northeast of Philadelphia.

In her six years at NBC, Miss Savitch served as the anchor of weekend editions of ''The NBC Nightly News'' and ''NBC News Digests,'' the one-minute prime-time news updates, and made frequent appearances on ''Meet the Press'' and the ''Today'' show. She also worked as a correspondent in Washington, reported on the 1980 Presidential campaign and was the anchor of a PBS documentary series, ''Frontline.''

Miss Savitch received four Emmy Awards and the Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award for local reporting. She resided in New York City. Drove Wrong Way

Walter Everett, the New Hope police chief, said that the couple had driven the wrong way out of the parking lot of a restaurant, Chez Odette, where they had gone for dinner. They drove about 600 feet over a dirt-and-gravel area, and past two warning signs. The car fell 10 feet from the canal wall into the water and landed upside down.

Continue reading the main story


''It was raining, the weather was bad,'' Mr. Everett said. ''The visibility was very poor.'' He said there had been a similar death there some years ago.

''The mud was knee-deep on the bottom,'' said Mario Lasarro, a member of the Lambertville, N. J., rescue squad that went to the scene on rural River Road. ''It looked like they tried to kick the doors open but they couldn't.'' Miss Savitch was in the back seat, Mr. Everett said, and Mr. Fischbein was in a seat belt at the wheel.

An autopsy showed that both Miss Savitch and Mr. Fishbein died of suffocation due to drowning, according to Dr. Thomas J. Rosko, the Bucks County coroner. He said that Miss Savitch had suffered a slight head injury, but it did not contribute to her death. Both she and Mr. Fishbein died ''within one minute to a very few minutes'' after plunging into the canal, he said.

There was no evidence to suggest alcohol or drug abuse, Dr. Rosko said, but he said that toxicological tests would not be completed for a week.

 

[Tbone144]

I’m sorry to hear this but hopefully it brings the family some closure. I have been over that bridge, once and found a different way back home after that. It is a very scary bridge in the middle of the day when there wasn’t high water. There were lots of signs up with warnings back in the day about not crossing if it’s flooded. Chambers creek flows southeast there if I remember correctly.

 

[Trudie]

I’m sorry to hear this but hopefully it brings the family some closure. I have been over that bridge, once and found a different way back home after that. It is a very scary bridge in the middle of the day when there wasn’t high water. There were lots of signs up with warnings back in the day about not crossing if it’s flooded. Chambers creek flows southeast there if I remember correctly.

Idk how the county expects people to heed warning signs.
If they need to be home or to work, it’s human nature, imo, for locals to risk crossing. After doing so successfully, I think they take more chances. Perhaps the road needs to be permanently closed & everyone needs to find a dif’ route. Fortunately no one died during the search. These incidents endanger so many, that’s why I wonder wth don’t they fix these things?

 

[Tbone144]

Idk how the county expects people to heed warning signs.
If they need to be home or to work, it’s human nature, imo, for locals to risk crossing. After doing so successfully, I think they take more chances. Perhaps the road needs to be permanently closed & everyone needs to find a dif’ route. Fortunately no one died during the search. These incidents endanger so many, that’s why I wonder wth don’t they fix these things?

I always got the impression that it was a road farmers used to get to their fields in that area and was a minimum maintenance road. There isn’t much other than farm land around the creek, at least there wasn’t when I lived back there, google satillite seems to show it pretty much the same now. We used it to avoid an accident on 287 trying to get to work and approached from the other side. There really isn’t any place to turn around either. You would have to drive backwards for quite a distance if you are in a vehicle that didn’t have a small turn radius.

There are a few sections of road in Ellis and Navarro counties that the locals warned me about, if it says don’t drive with water on the road, you don’t risk it.

Still trying to figure out how she got down there though looking at the maps from the coworkers house to home.

 

[neesaki]

Why was she driving so far away from her home, when the last location she was at was so close to her home?

Has this already been answered, if so, Thank you. Still maybe someone could repeat it for me.
I just have some doubts concerning that she was there in that area, away from where she was reportedly going to be. I get it that sometimes we just want to drive around, etc. But, why drive around and drive through obviously flooding areas over the road. We all know about those areas, it's not anything new. We all know to avoid those areas. So.......
Anyone? TIA