http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/cleveland/news/article_74c7efbd-d983-548c-90da-fc5db936adec.htmlSearch continues for missing Shepherd man Posted: Thursday, January 20, 2011 4:33 pm
By STEPHEN THOMAS
The search continues for Walter David “Bo” Brawner, a missing Shepherd man last seen on June 10, 2008, and who otherwise may have celebrated his 70th birthday with his family on Wednesday, Jan. 26.
At the family’s request, law enforcement personnel from numerous agencies and The Woodlands-based volunteer K-9 unit formed a team on Wednesday, Jan. 19, and carried out a full court press to comb a location that the family feared would be the site of Brawner’s remains. The search took place in and around a 400-by-150 foot pond, parts of which as deep as 15 feet, on private property off the beaten path, east of U.S. 59 near Ragsdale Springs Road in Shepherd. The water temperature was 50 degrees.
No remains were found during the roughly three-hour search; nevertheless the family was profoundly grateful for the property owner’s cooperation and for the thorough and prompt response from the Houston Police Department Marine Unit Dive Team, the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Department, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Underwater Search and Recovery Team, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Special K-9s Search and Recovery Certified Dog Team.
“In any situation like this, where you’ve got a family member missing, you’d rather see something taking place, and possibly working toward some resolution, than nothing happening at all,” said Walter Brawner’s niece, Shepherd resident Lonnette Brawner, moments before authorities and volunteers carried out the search in an area that the family prior to Christmas recommended. “It’s a relief to know that something is being done … We had a hunch and followed through with it, and had a team of cadaver dogs come in and search the area. From what the dogs hit on, we decided that it would be best to have law enforcement personnel come in and check it out … They were more than happy and more than willing, thank God, to come out and assist us in this.”
Under the direction of Dive Master and Houston Police Department Senior Police Officer Glen Mayo, more than dozen divers searched the pond, most of them crawling, practically shoulder-to-shoulder, from the water’s edge, clawing through roots and stalks of reeds, working ideally toward bringing closure to the family. Divers equipped with tanks also searched the pond’s deeper sections. K-9s sniffed the area.
Walter Brawner is listed as 5-foot-4 and 120 pounds on the Department of Public Safety’s Missing Person Bulletin. He is a white male with blue eyes and gray hair, who wears glasses, has a 13-inch scar on his right leg, limps, has a brown birthmark on the back of one of his legs, and has a scar on one of his hands, according to the bulletin. The bulletin also reads that Brawner usually wears Western-style shirts with pearl snaps and jeans.
Anyone who has questions or information about the case should contact the Texas Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse at 800-346-3243.
