Updated after print deadline

Angler’s body found after massive 2-day search

A two-day search by a flotilla of dozens of volunteers and law enforcement officers who braved darkness, sweltering heat and underbrush hazards of an overfull reservoir ended at 9:15 a.m. Monday with the discovery of the body of a missing angler from northeastern Kansas.

An autopsy to determine cause of death is pending.

The 46-year-old fisherman, a professional carpenter and veteran of many fishing tournaments, had been expected to contact his fiancée around 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

At 1:20 a.m. Sunday, she called the Marion County sheriff’s office and reported him missing.

Equipped with night vision, two deputies began searching at 1:48 a.m.

They soon were joined by a lake patrol officer and by Hillsboro and Marion police as well as Corps of Engineers workers and a state game warden in boats.

Around 3:15 a.m., Corps workers accompanied by a deputy sheriff discovered the angler’s boat. It was crashed offshore and partially submerged by brush two miles north of Cottonwood Point, near where Nighthawk Rd. dead-ends at the water from the north.

The boat had not capsized. Its main motor was off even though its trolling motor was still on.

The angler’s shirt, hat, and cellular phone were still in the boat, and fishing lines were set. No life preserver was found, according to monitored radio broadcasts.

Still-high flood waters kept deputies on shore from reaching the craft. The reservoir remains almost seven feet above its normal level because of recent rains.

A Kansas Highway Patrol airplane with thermal imaging equipment used to find heat signatures began flying over the reservoir at 4 a.m. but no hints to his location were discovered.

Deputies notified the angler’s fiancée and a friend, who immediately left from their homes in northeastern Kansas, bringing boats with them to join the search.

Crafts launched one after the other from Marion Cove, the only boat dock at the reservoir not swamped by flooding, as disconsolate family and friends conferred with sheriff’s deputies on shore.

The search continued throughout daytime hours Sunday, was suspended for safety reasons after dark, and resumed Monday morning.

Although the victim’s name is known, relatives have asked that it not be released until all family members are notified.