Sharp County searchers found the body late Thursday of a man for whom they had searched two days after the assault of a woman and a separate shooting.
Searchers in an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission boat found the body of Brandon Southerly, 23, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., in the Spring River south of Hardy at 7:30 p.m., Sharp County Sheriff Mark Counts said. During a Tuesday chase, the sheriff said, Southerly drove off U.S. 63 east of Hardy, abandoned his truck and ran into the river.
Police had sought Southerly after he hit a woman in a car outside an Imboden Dollar General store earlier Tuesday, Counts said.
Southerly fled, and later that evening drove to a residence on the eastern edge of Ravenden in Lawrence County.
The sheriff said Southerly knocked on the door and then shot a man with a rifle before fleeing. The man, whom police did not name, was transported to White River Medical Center in Batesville where he was treated for his injury.
"He never met the man," Counts said of Southerly. "There was no robbery. He just saw the man and shot him."
At times during Tuesday's chase, Southerly hit speeds over 100 mph before stopping at a service station near Ravenden. Authorities surrounded Southerly, but he eluded them, Counts said.
Police then placed spiked strips at two spots on U.S. 63 near Hardy late Tuesday and Southerly drove off the highway about three-quarters of a mile south of Hardy. Counts said Southerly drove down a lane along the Spring River before parking his truck and running into woods.
Counts' deputies searched the woods and an Arkansas State Police helicopter flew over the river Tuesday evening and Wednesday. Search dogs from the North-Central Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction in Calico Rock tracked Southerly's trail to the Spring River on Thursday afternoon, Counts said.
"We were pinging his phone," Counts said, referring to a method used to track cellphone usage and location. "We came up with nothing. He usually called his mother, she said, but he hadn't made any calls since Tuesday. He was running scared."
Police deployed search boats into the river late Thursday, and authorities found Southerly's body just downstream from where he parked his truck, the sheriff said. Authorities later found three weapons inside Southerly's vehicle -- a .410-gauge shotgun and two high-powered rifles.
Counts said friends of Southerly later told him that Southerly could not swim.
Authorities sent Southerly's body to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for an autopsy.
"We are glad this is over," Counts said. "He was a dangerous person. It's been a long three days."
Southerly had served two years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for attempted second-degree assault, stealing a vehicle and possession of a controlled substance, said Capt. Dave Sutton of the Poplar Bluff Police Department.
Southerly was wanted by Poplar Bluff police for a parole violation, Sutton said.
State Desk on 05/07/2016