River Search Yields No Clues

Crews from the Breathitt County Sheriff’s Office and the Wolfe County Search and Rescue Squad combed the banks of the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River near Old Buck for more than six hours on Saturday, looking for any clues surrounding the disappearance of Lee Southwood.

The Wolfe County Rescue Squad, led by John May, divided their members into two teams and covered about a mile on foot and nearly four miles in a boat on March 29.  The rescue squad received assistance from two cadaver dogs from the Commonwealth Canine Forensic Investigation group who traveled to Breathitt County from Louisville.

“As of now, this is a missing person case,” Breathitt County Sheriff John Hollan said.  “We are investigating every aspect of this case and have already gathered information and evidence from several sources.  We have several clues about what happened here and will get to the bottom of it.”

One search crew put a boat in the river at the mouth of Mill Branch and searched the banks and river downstream for two miles to the Old Buck Bridge on Highway 30 West.  The water crew searched the area below the bridge and proceeded downstream for nearly two miles.  

As the boat floated down the river, Logan, the search dog, sniffed the air and water for human remains as his handler, Barbara Weasley-Jones, watched for any signs of a “hit.”

The second team searched the banks under the Old Buck Bridge and walked the river bank for more than a mile, checking driftwood piles and “river strainers.”   

Search crews said that the dogs “became interested” several times during the day but never settled into a definite alert to signal the presence of remains.  Cadaver dogs can smell human remains for some distance and can also find victims submerged in water.

Hollan and search officials focused most of their attention on a stretch of the Kentucky River around and immediately downstream from the Willie Sandlin Bridge, which crosses the Middle Fork near Highway 30 West and Highway 3237.

“We have reason to believe that he might be in the water,” Sheriff Hollan said.  “We have to investigate that lead as a possibility.  Rainfall and high water from the release of Buckhorn Lake helped move debris and brush along the river during the time it is believed Southwod went missing.  By Saturday, search crews were unable to launch one of the boats they brought due to dropping river levels.  That boat would have provided search crews with a sonar view to support their efforts.  

Sheriff Hollon told searchers that several items belonging to Southwood were discovered in the area. 

Lee Douglas Southwood has been missing for nearly two months.  Officials estimate that he was last seen in the area near their search close to Canoe at the end of January.  He is described as a 54-year-old male who weighs 150 pounds and is six feet tall.  He has blue eyes and long sandy blonde hair with some gray.

The Sheriff has not ruled out another river search, but expected high water from anticipated rains this week has delayed that effort.

“This is just one aspect of our investigation,” Sheriff Hollan told The Jackson Times-Voice.  We are not finished and will not finish until we find him and this case is solved.

Anyone with information about Southwood’s whereabouts is urged to contact the Breathitt County Sheriff’s office.