The search for a Monroe County fisherman began to look grim as rescuers came up empty-handed after a third day of looking.
Casey Ward Jr., 46, was last seen at 9:45 a.m. Monday when Ward and his father split up on separate boats to run fishing nets near the confluence of the Cache and White rivers near Clarendon. The two had planned to meet again at 11 a.m., but Ward was nowhere to be found. Continuous calls to his cellphone went unanswered, Monroe County Sheriff Michael Neal said.
All that could be found was Ward’s boat, which had run up into the brush along the riverbank. The motor was still running, and Ward’s small, whimpering dog was waiting inside.
“Only thing that was out of place is that he wasn’t there,” Neal said Tuesday from the river.
Ward’s family, along with the the Monroe County sheriff’s office, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, searched the bedrock with sonar-equipped boats and dive teams. On Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard was sent in to assist with heavy-duty equipment able to scan the entire stretch of river, Neal said.
But there was still no sign of Ward. By Wednesday afternoon, after no progress, search operations began to scale back. The Coast Guard packed up its equipment, and the Game and Fish Commission called in its dive team. The sheriff’s office and the commission will be running the river three times a day for the next week using eyes and ears only until he’s found, Neal said.
“We’re pretty sure he’s in the water,” Neal said.
Ward and his father, both commercial fishermen, have fished this stretch of the river all their lives, said Clarendon Mayor James Stinson III, who knows Ward personally. The father and son duo regularly set out netting and trotlines for buffalo fish and catfish, which they sell from their Clarendon home, Stinson said.
But river levels this week have been about 10 feet higher than they normally are during this time of year — water levels reached 27 feet and flooded the banks thanks to recent rains, Stinson said. And Neal, who had been on the water through Tuesday, said the current was flowing about 7 miles per hour.