FAYETTEVILLE -- Police say they believe the man found dead Monday in Prairie Grove is 61-year-old Bobby Henry who was reported missing from the Lincoln area Oct. 10.
Capt. Jeff O'Brien with the Prairie Grove Police Department said no positive identification has been made, but the physical description and the clothing of the man found at the Pit Stop in Prairie Grove matches the description of Henry. O'Brien said the body has been sent to the state Crime Lab for identification and further investigation. O'Brien said DNA samples have been obtained from Henry's family to try and establish a match.
A Silver Alert was issued for Henry on Oct. 10 by the Arkansas State Police, O'Brien said. He was reportedly last seen walking away from a residence at 1658 E. North St. in Lincoln.
O'Brien said Lincoln police received a report that same day of a vehicle stolen from Leming & Son Trucking at 1749 E. North St. in Lincoln, which O'Brien said is across the street from the residence where Henry was last seen.
Initially, O'Brien said, there was no evidence to connect the missing man and the missing vehicle. The vehicle was recovered around 10 a.m Oct. 10 after it was driven through a gate at a Prairie Grove business, across a field and crashed in a ditch outside the business property. The location of the crash is apparently just outside the Prairie Grove city limits. Washington County Sheriff's Office deputies recovered the vehicle and searched the area but found no one, O'Brien said. Another search later in the same week also failed to locate anyone.
On Monday, O'Brien said, a man stopped at the Pit Stop gas station and convenience store at 16014 U.S. 62, which is near the intersection of U.S. 62 and Bobb Kidd Lake Road. The business has been closed for some time, O'Brien said, and the man went around the building looking for a place to urinate. O'Brien said the man had stopped near a large open pit where the gasoline storage tanks for the business had been removed. The man looked down into the pit and saw a body in about a foot of water.
O'Brien said the Pit Stop is about 800 feet from where the truck had crashed into the ditch. The open pit is 6 to 8 feet deep in places with very steep sides, he said. The body was recovered by Prairie Grove police and sent to the state Crime Lab.
"Our belief is it appears to us to be the missing man," O'Brien said. "According to what I've been told, he had been in an accident in Missouri and was hospitalized there with head trauma and a possible concussion. A family member picked him up in Missouri and brought him to Lincoln and told police there he had been in a disoriented state."
Bobby Henry