Post by LadyBlue on Nov 6, 2013 8:56:47 GMT -5
INDEPENDENCE — After almost two years of searching, coordination among several agencies in Kentucky and Ohio, and an original sonar system, Mark Smith was found.
The Independence man was last seen Feb. 16, 2012. His body was in a truck pulled from the Ohio River Saturday, Nov. 2.
Independence Police Detective Jim Moore had followed every lead until it went cold, but he kept searching. Then, he had a hunch while driving by some of the locations where Smith was last seen.
Moore noticed a boat ramp into the Ohio River in California, Ohio.
“It was just a theory, from the start, that I always had,” he said. “I’d contacted recycling places to see if his truck had been sold for scrap. I’d exhausted all leads. The river was the last place that was never checked, and we didn’t have the technology to look there.”
So Moore called Capt. Dale Appel of Boone County Water Rescue in August, and Appel scheduled a search.
Appel said most sonar searching is done with a horizontal scan, but with software designed by sonar specialist Tim Purcell, the equipment used by Boone County Water Rescue searches vertically.
“It’s a basic side-scan sonar system that has been revised to give us much much better images in such a respect that the clarity, and being able to identify what you’re looking for, is much better than the regular side scan system,” said Appel. “We search vertically, which is opposite of what everyone else does. We’re looking down at objects we’re trying to find, so the object we’re searching for is a whole lot clearer. The sonar guys twist and turn this thing. The means to move around and see is much better. It’s amazing.”
When they found an object about the size of an extended cab Ford Ranger pickup truck submerged in the Ohio, just upstream from the Little Miami River, Appel said they were ready to send in divers.
“Then we just got the truck and pulled it out,” he said.
Because Kenton County supports Boone County Water Rescue through annual funding, the search was completed at no extra cost to Independence Police.
news.cincinnati.com/article/20131105/NEWS0103/311050139/Missing-man-s-body-found-search-answers-continues
The Independence man was last seen Feb. 16, 2012. His body was in a truck pulled from the Ohio River Saturday, Nov. 2.
Independence Police Detective Jim Moore had followed every lead until it went cold, but he kept searching. Then, he had a hunch while driving by some of the locations where Smith was last seen.
Moore noticed a boat ramp into the Ohio River in California, Ohio.
“It was just a theory, from the start, that I always had,” he said. “I’d contacted recycling places to see if his truck had been sold for scrap. I’d exhausted all leads. The river was the last place that was never checked, and we didn’t have the technology to look there.”
So Moore called Capt. Dale Appel of Boone County Water Rescue in August, and Appel scheduled a search.
Appel said most sonar searching is done with a horizontal scan, but with software designed by sonar specialist Tim Purcell, the equipment used by Boone County Water Rescue searches vertically.
“It’s a basic side-scan sonar system that has been revised to give us much much better images in such a respect that the clarity, and being able to identify what you’re looking for, is much better than the regular side scan system,” said Appel. “We search vertically, which is opposite of what everyone else does. We’re looking down at objects we’re trying to find, so the object we’re searching for is a whole lot clearer. The sonar guys twist and turn this thing. The means to move around and see is much better. It’s amazing.”
When they found an object about the size of an extended cab Ford Ranger pickup truck submerged in the Ohio, just upstream from the Little Miami River, Appel said they were ready to send in divers.
“Then we just got the truck and pulled it out,” he said.
Because Kenton County supports Boone County Water Rescue through annual funding, the search was completed at no extra cost to Independence Police.
news.cincinnati.com/article/20131105/NEWS0103/311050139/Missing-man-s-body-found-search-answers-continues
Attachments:
