By Kim Norvell
St. Joseph News-Press
BIG LAKE, Mo. — A switch in recovery tactics proved successful Tuesday in locating the body of the K-9 member of a missing highway patrol trooper duo. But 17-year veteran Fred Guthrie Jr. is still missing in Northwest Missouri floodwaters.
The 46-year-old trooper and his 5-year-old K-9, Reed, disappeared while on flood duty in Holt County on Monday. A search-and-rescue mission began at 3 p.m. and continued until 11 p.m. Monday, before it turned to a “water recovery effort” that started at daylight Tuesday.
Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sgt. Sheldon Lyon, spokesman with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, announced that a Black Hawk helicopter had begun to place sandbags, provided by the Missouri Department of Transportation, in an area where they believe Mr. Guthrie and his companion may be.
About three hours of sandbagging later, the dog’s body floated to the surface and was recovered.
“He came up where we thought they might be,” Mr. Lyon said.
The sandbags were stacked along Missouri Highway 118, where Mr. Guthrie’s truck and trailer were found, in an attempt to divert the water so a two-man dive team could enter the area with sonar equipment.
Mr. Lyon said there’s a hard current where the water meets the road, which has created what they believe to be a 30-foot-deep hole where the highway has begun to wash away.
The current has so far hampered the search efforts, proving too swift for the sonar to detect what’s located underwater and too dangerous for the dive team to enter.
“They would suffer the same fate, if that’s where Fred Guthrie is,” Mr. Lyon said. “Hopefully it will take the hydraulic pressure off that part and we’ll be able to find him.”
“We’re hoping to find him as quickly as possible for his family,” Mr. Lyon added.
The Missouri Department of Conservation and various Northwest Missouri law enforcement agencies assisted members of the Patrol’s Aircraft Division and Water Patrol Division in Tuesday’s search for their missing colleague.
The trooper was last seen at 1 p.m. Monday in Holt County, when those on flood duty broke for lunch. His still-running truck, with the boat still in tow, was found at 3 p.m. on Highway 118, near floodwaters just northeast of Big Lake.
Mr. Guthrie, who was a trooper assigned to the Highway Patrol’s Water Division, began his service in January 1994. He most recently served in the Highway Patrol’s Troop A, in Platte County.
In 2007, he was honored with the Medal of Valor for rescuing a woman who was clinging to a buoy in Smithville Lake after being thrown from her boat during a thunderstorm.
“He was really just a fun guy to be around and just had a great, great personality,” Mr. Lyon said.
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