Body, car of missing Cherokee County woman pulled from lake

CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. - The search for a missing 65-year-old Cherokee County woman who disappeared after sending a text message to friends Saturday has ended in tragedy.

Investigators with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office say they pulled the body of Laura Ann Linden from Lake Arrowhead Wednesday morning. 

Investigators say the last time anyone had contact with Linden was through a text around 6 p.m. Saturday evening. She had recently moved to the Lake Arrowhead community. 

According to the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, dive teams recovered Linden's body, which was inside her car, from the lake after receiving a call about a possible vehicle in the water near Peninsula Way.

Further details were not released.

When Tony Williams heard one of his neighbors was missing, he jumped in his truck and started searching for her.

"She's a new resident so she's not going to be familiar with the roads and streets and it’s so easy to get turned around in the rain and the fog," said Williams.

Cherokee County Sheriff's investigators say friends, who also live in Lake Arrowhead, were expecting her at their home for dinner Saturday, but she never showed up. The sheriff's office posted a photo of Linden, along with her gray Nissan Sentra on social media, asking if anyone has seen her to give them a call.

Jeremy Sides and Adam Brown had also been searching for her. They have a social media platform, Wrecked and Recovered, that focuses on searching for cold case missing persons. While this is not a cold case, they live in north Georgia, and wanted to help.

"We started searching the lake, used sonar looking for her car. We couldn't find anything, so we spent the rest of the day looking on the roads, the ravines," said Sides.

"It's so hilly, there are so many ravines and spots without guardrails," said Brown.

They said others from the community were also out searching.

"She's somebody's mom, somebody's sister, and it's been too long, three days," said Williams.

Sheriff's investigators say they are following all leads. If anyone knows anything about her where she could be, call 911.