MOUND CITY, Mo. (AP) — Heartbroken law enforcement officers battled fast-moving floodwaters and extreme heat Tuesday as they searched for the body of a missing colleague and his patrol dog, who apparently were swept away in northwest Missouri.
Trooper Fred Guthrie Jr., 46, of Platte City, and his K-9, Reed, disappeared Monday while patrolling flooded lands near Big Lake in Holt County. A frantic rescue effort became a recovery mission early Tuesday when officials determined it was unlikely they had survived.
Guthrie would be the second Missouri trooper killed in as many days. On Sunday, Cpl. Don Ivie, 44, of Springfield, was killed while mountain climbing in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Many of the two dozen troopers and area law enforcement officers involved in the search effort knew Guthrie and are determined to recover his body, patrol spokesman Sgt. Sheldon Lyon said.
"We need to find him, we want to find him very badly, especially for the family," Lyon said Tuesday.
Guthrie's still-running truck, with a trailer attached, was found Monday on Missouri Highway 118 northeast of Big Lake, part of the Missouri River flood plain that has been covered by floodwaters since June.
Lyon didn't want to speculate about what might have happened to Guthrie and Reed, but he said the water rushing through the area can be deceptive.
"If you take a picture, you tend to think it's stagnant water over a field," he said. "In fact, a lot of the water is moving, with a strong current. In some places it's very swift, very dangerous. We believe that somehow Fred got into that current and drowned."
Guthrie, a 17-year patrol veteran, served in the Water Patrol Division within Troop A in Platte County. He was assigned a boat and trailer and patrolled the region, where many people still cannot return to their homes because of the floodwaters.
Lyon said Guthrie's duties included hauling people to their flooded homes if they had an emergency, rescuing anyone who became stranded in the water and patrolling to ensure that valuable farm equipment left by homeowners is not stolen or vandalized.
Reed, a German shepherd that served with the patrol for five years, was trained as a narcotics dog and protected officers who might become involved in confrontations, Lyon said.
Guthrie was a well-liked trooper who often participated in education programs about water safety. In 2007, he was honored for rescuing a woman who was clinging to a buoy in Smithville Lake after being thrown from her boat during a thunderstorm.
"I cannot express how neat a guy he was, how fun he was to work with," Lyon said. "He had a fabulous personality. It's a very sad thing that's happened."
Ivie was an 18-year veteran of the patrol and was in the motorcycle unit of Troop D. A press release from Grand Teton National Park said Ivie fell 2,500 feet to his death sometime Sunday after starting his climb at 1:45 a.m. His wife reported him missing after he failed to show up at the end of the day.
Rescuers found his body around 1:45 p.m. Monday.
Patrol spokesman Lt. John Hotz said the two incidents have shaken the state's law enforcement community.
"It's a difficult thing for our organization to go through," Hotz said. "With the death of Don Ivie out in Wyoming, and we're still searching for Trooper Guthrie in the northern part of the state, it's a tough time. But everybody has a job to do, and we're doing those jobs. At the same time we're thinking of the families of those affected, as well as the troopers themselves."
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