A frantic search for two missing firefighters from coastal Georgia ended tragically over the weekend, hundreds of miles away in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains.
Raegan Anderson and Chandler Kuhbander — both 24 and working for the Liberty County, Georgia, Fire Department — were a former couple who had been romantically involved since high school, Kuhbander’s mother, Jane Kuhbander, told local news outlet WJCL.
Now, authorities are awaiting the results of autopsy reports to announce how they died.
Missing Liberty County firefighters found dead | Click on the image to read the full story https://t.co/ysPMfoYrEQ
— WJCL News (@WJCLNews) June 30, 2024
Trouble involving the two became part of the public record June 22, when Anderson was arrested for vandalizing Kuhbander’s vehicle after she confronted him while he was on a date with another woman at an Olive Garden in Hinesville, Georgia, according to WTOC-TV in Savannah.
“Ms. Anderson caused a disturbance with Mr. Kuhbander, and she walked outside and keyed his vehicle,” the station reported, quoting a Hinesville police report.
On June 24, Anderson was demoted at the fire department and placed on administrative leave, WTOC reported.
That was also the last day Kuhbander’s mother spoke to her son, according to WJCL in Savannah.
She told the station, her son had said Anderson had been “blowing up his phone” and threatening suicide.
The two went missing on June 25, when a deputy chief at the fire department asked police to check on Anderson’s welfare.
She was not at home, but officers found a note indicating she might harm herself, WTOC reported.
Kuhbander, meanwhile, was last seen on video leaving a gym in Savannah at about 11:30 that morning. His vehicle was found in the gym’s parking lot.
His mother told WJCL that the mall where the gym is located had let her see video that showed Anderson’s car in the parking lot while Kuhbander worked out.
“At 11:40 my son walks out of the building, and he looks very comfortable, like he just had his workout,” she told the station. “He doesn’t look rushed as he walks through the parking lot. After that, we don’t see him again.”
That afternoon, according to WTOC, Anderson is recorded on video getting gas in northwestern South Carolina. Kuhbander is not seen, but his mother told WTOC that his phone was tracked to the town.
The bodies of the two were found inside Anderson’s vehicle in Cosby, Tennessee, a tiny mountain hamlet in the Gatlinburg area.
In light of the discovery, Jane Kuhbander’s interview with WJCL Thursday became particularly poignant.
“You don’t want to be in this position. And when you see it on television, I can see how they feel,” she told the station. “Then it hits you, like, I am that person. I do feel that way. This is terrifying, and you have no answers.”
The Cocke County, Tennessee, Sheriff’s Office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are leading the investigation, according to USA Today.
