911 call shows confusion when LendingTree CEO was missing
Workers struggled to find Doug Lebda after his disappearance on his farm Sunday afternoon, audio suggests
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A worker at LendingTree CEO Doug Lebda’s Polk County farm called 911 after hearing from Lebda’s wife – hours after Lebda left for a ride with his Labradoodle; ‘He disappeared’
A worker at the farm owned by LendingTree CEO Doug Lebda had worried that Lebda might have fallen into a pond on the property, according to a 911 call released Friday. Authorities located Lebda’s body about 30 minutes later. (From property listing by Bid Y’all Auction & Realty)
by Tony Mecia
A 911 call released Friday captures some of the panic and confusion on LendingTree CEO Doug Lebda’s rural farm on Sunday, with a worker on the site requesting help to find Lebda, who had left more than four hours earlier with his Labradoodle for a ride in a utility vehicle.
Lebda, one of Charlotte’s best-known CEOs, was found dead Sunday night at his 227-acre farm in Polk County, about 80 miles west of Charlotte. LendingTree said he died in an ATV accident. The news of the 55-year-old’s death stunned Charlotte business and political figures who knew him as an entrepreneurial visionary who was generous with his time and money.
The 911 call, released to The Charlotte Ledger on Friday morning from Polk County E-911 Communications, came in at 7:31 p.m. from an unidentified man who tells a dispatcher that he works for Lebda at the farm.