Missing Dandridge girl found dead in Douglas Lake

DANDRIDGE, Tenn. (WATE) — The hours-long search for a missing Jefferson County child came to a tragic end Thursday morning when the body of 7-year-old Serenity Kinsey was found in Douglas Lake. She hadn’t been seen since 1:00 a.m. prior to her body being discovered.

Crews from multiple counties hit the ground running as soon as the call came in for a missing person near the lake. There was suspicion she had headed for the water where she was ultimately found at 11:18 A.M.

“The initial responding deputies that responded here, one of them was a K-9 officer and it actually made a track down to the water,” Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Coffey said. “That was one of our suspicions that she had gone to the water and she has done that in the past too when she had left. That was one of our fears of the end result of what had happened here.”

Law enforcement agencies along with many search and rescue teams made their way to Indian Creek Road and that area of Douglas Lake in a hurry. Coffey expressed his gratitude for the outpouring of support.

“I addressed them a little while ago and they are all volunteers,” Coffey said. “It’s Fourth of July they had all kinds of stuff planned today and they dropped all their plans and everything they were doing with their families. They came here to help and we can’t say enough about the volunteers in our community here in Jefferson County and the surrounding counties. If we didn’t have them we couldn’t have done it on our own.”

According to the sheriff’s office, the child had wandered down to the lake before, but was found quickly in those incidents. Unfortunately today’s search ended in tragedy.

Family members declined to comment. The sheriff’s office posted on social media Thursday afternoon saying they send their condolences and prayers to Serenities family during this difficult time.

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