Crashed motorcyclist spends two days in ditch as friends search for him in Tennessee
A 27-year-old was found alive in a ditch two days after he was reported missing in Tennessee, according to friends and loved ones.
Knox County deputies said family members reported Taylor Boyle missing on Tuesday, Oct. 17, after he was last heard from on Sunday, Oct. 15. Boyle was on his motorcycle when he disappeared.
Friends and strangers, a private search and rescue team and Knox County law enforcement searched the area in the days following his disappearance, according to an Oct. 18 Facebook post from Nichole Rousseau. Boyle was located by his friends around 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
He was “down a 15 ft embankment not even a mile from home hidden under trees and bushes. Within the same radius we had been searching around all day Tuesday,” Rousseau said.
Another post said Boyle was found near Heiskell, which is about 12 miles northwest of Knoxville.
“Taylor just missed the guardrail. He was laying there in the cold for days dehydrated with only a concussion and a dislocated elbow. Face untouched,” according to Rousseau. “He was alive and talking, moving both arms and legs.”
Brandon Lawson, a friend involved in the search, told WBIR that he was the one who found Boyle.
“When I looked down in there, I didn’t see him at first and as I was panning out, I saw something sparkle — basically just saw the light reflect. And when I did, I looked back and I just saw the Harley wheel,” Lawson told the news outlet.
“It’s pretty crazy, honestly, as far as he was down here. And, as much as you can see from up here, it’s a miracle that we found him. I just praise God every day,” Ryan French, another friend involved in the search, told WBIR.
After Boyle was found, he said he thought he had only been outside for about an hour on a camping trip with his dad, Rousseau said in her post. He is now recovering in the hospital with a minor brain bleed. He has a “long road to recovery.”
Friends shared details of the rescue on social media. Videos show rescuers in the woods before Boyle is lifted from a ditch on a stretcher. Another video shows Boyle’s motorcycle being dragged from the woods where it crashed.
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