Brother of missing Washington County, Tennessee man still searching for answers

JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) — Steven Cloyd was last seen on Sept. 27, the day Hurricane Helene swept through the region. Despite search efforts, his family has not received any leads on his whereabouts.

Steven Cloyd and his wife lived with his brother Gary Cloyd near the Nolichucky River off Highway 107 in Jonesborough for almost three years.

On Sept. 27, Gary Cloyd said his brother texted him about water flooding into the upstairs of the house.

“He said that his cell phone was about to go dead, his battery’s dead in his jeep and they [Steven and his dog] were sitting in it,” Gary Cloyd said. “And any given time, he was fixing to break loose. It was all covered up around here. And that’s the last contact I had. And that was about 2:16 p.m. that day.”

Steven Cloyd’s wife, Keli Cloyd, reported hearing from him a short time later, around 2:48 p.m., but since then there have been no updates on his whereabouts.

The Cloyd family believes he was in his Jeep at the time of the flooding, which was later discovered about 0.3 miles from their residence, in a nearby field.

Despite extensive search efforts involving volunteers, fire departments, law enforcement, helicopters and search dogs, no leads have emerged regarding Steven Cloyd’s location.

“It’s sort of like a war zone at that time, two days ago,” Gary Cloyd said. “But they’ve had to slack up because they were walking on all that and it was confusing the dogs with human scent.”

In a glimmer of hope, Steven Cloyd’s dog, Orion, was found three miles away from their residence.

“And that was his best friend,” Gary Cloyd said. “That dog went everywhere he went, and that was a miracle.”

Although brothers, Gary and Steven Cloyd didn’t get to know each other until five years ago.

“My dad lived in Illinois, and my mom come down here and we had lost contact,” Gary Cloyd said. “I mean, it’s been 40 years and then in some freak accident, you know, whatever we got to communicating. They got to coming down here and he was a loving person. I know he cared about me. And he didn’t want to break that friendship. He told me that a few times, and you couldn’t ask for a better person to live with.”

Steven Cloyd has two sons, a daughter-in-law and two grandsons, all of whom have traveled from Illinois to assist in the search and clean-up efforts.

“He loved his family and he would do anything for his family,” Gary Cloyd said.

As the community rallies around the Cloyd family, the hope remains that Steven Cloyd will be found safe and sound.

“The only help I’ve got is from the local people and they’ve been wonderful, stopping by and seeing if I needed anything,” Gary Cloyd said. “And sometimes they make you eat, they’re just wonderful. You can’t say no to them sometimes.”

The flood waters severely damaged Gary Cloyd’s home and surrounding property. The water line is multiple feet high inside his house. All of the furniture has been removed. Three of his vehicles were flooded. A garage around the house was wiped out.

Amidst everything he’s lost, Gary Cloyd hopes to find closure about his brother’s whereabouts.

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