The Missouri State Highway Patrol announced Jan. 12 it found the body of missing Trooper Fred Guthrie Jr. and his K-9 partner Reed, who went missing while on flood patrol near the Big Lake area in Holt County Aug. 1, 2011.
“The body was located to the south, near where Reed was actually recovered,” said Captain Tim Hull, director of the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Public Information and Education Division. “He was not too far from the original search site, in a brush pile.”
Guthrie’s remains were found around 2 p.m. Thursday when Hill Brothers Construction, Inc., a contractor for the Missouri Department of Transportation, was working to repair damage caused by last year’s flood. They were excavating sand and dirt and filling scour holes on Highway 111. During this process, they unearthed Guthrie’s remains. The Patrol stated it had troopers on site as the work took place.
“We had officers in the area,” Hull said. “We never gave up the search. We had troopers in the area watching for signs.”
Guthrie and K-9 Reed were on flood duty in the Big Lake area in Holt County Aug. 1, 2011, and were reported missing around 3 p.m. that day. The only clues to their disappearance were Guthrie’s truck and boat, left unattended. According to the Highway Patrol, it is assumed he and Reed were both swept away by swift flood waters.
On Aug. 2, 2011 around 6:25 p.m., the dog’s body was found in the flood waters about 100 yards from where the truck and boat were located.
“If you saw that water up there — how quickly it was rushing and the force,” Hull said, “Knowing if you stepped off in one area, stepped in a hole... We just don’t know what happened. There is a possibility we might not ever know what happened exactly.”
To read more, pick up the Jan. 18 edition of the Platte County Citizen.