The Search For Matt

[Ten In]

Matt still has not been found...I pray for his family...I request that all that are on the river to keep a close eye out for him...If found call 911 Please reply if you hear anything! As of today 3/7/08 Still no word!

As of 3/13/08 The plot thickens! Is he on the run or in the water!!!

4/25/08 Well as it apears at this time the search was in vain! should have been futher south! Like RioGrand!!! It was just told that there where calls from his Cell Phone 30 min after the Search Started...so I am guessing that we can all fish in peace with out worry of him poping up under our boat......If found I Want 10min. alone with him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Webmater Please remove this toypic at your decression!

[delta_queen]

I am not making a comment on this one way or the other, but I thought I would pass along what I read in the news today at http://www.rivercountry967.com/newrcnews.html there are also fishing reports there....

"Missing Man May Have Faked Disappearance

Matt Sheppard reportedly fell into the Little Red River last month and lost his life trying to save his dog, at least that is the story police are working with--now new details in the Daily Citizen this morning that Shepard is under investigation by the Searcy Police Department for allegedly embezzling nearly $40,000 dollars from the Eaton Company, where he worked as a safety manager before his disappearance. Eaton filed a theft report two days after Sheppard was reported missing. Investigators now suspect Sheppard may have faked his disappearance to avoid prosecution. "

[Phil Lilley]

Orginal story -

An employee of the Eaton Corporation in Searcy is missing and authorities fear he has drowned.

Matthew Shepard, 42, of Searcy fell into the river from a dock downstream from Cow Shoals on the Little Red River, just outside the Heber Springs city limits.

Search and rescue teams were called off a 24-hour search at sundown Monday after searching on the banks and underwater from the dock where Shepard was last seen down to Barnett Landing.

According to a Cleburne County Sheriff's Department spokesman, the Shepard family dog went into the river and Shepard went in after it. After saving the dog, Shepard was overcome by the 39-degree water, came up for air once, then disappeared about 6 p.m. Sunday.

Two generators were operating at the Greer's Ferry Dam, about eight miles upstream, at the time of the accident, but have since been pulled offline to facilitate recovery efforts.

Dive teams from the White County Sheriff's Department, the Faulkner County Sheriff's Department, the Cleburne County Search and Rescue Team and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission were aided by the Pangburn Police Department in the search.

“The water was so cold, and divers can only stay down for a limited time, even with dry suits,” said Warren Darden, a member of the Cleburne County Search and Rescue Dive Team.

Was there a follow up story? Curious to know who witnessed the incident. For some reason I thought it was a girlfriend???

What a shame but at least he didn't drown if they are right. Not too late to repent.

[Ten In]

Orginal story -

An employee of the Eaton Corporation in Searcy is missing and authorities fear he has drowned.

Matthew Shepard, 42, of Searcy fell into the river from a dock downstream from Cow Shoals on the Little Red River, just outside the Heber Springs city limits.

Search and rescue teams were called off a 24-hour search at sundown Monday after searching on the banks and underwater from the dock where Shepard was last seen down to Barnett Landing.

According to a Cleburne County Sheriff's Department spokesman, the Shepard family dog went into the river and Shepard went in after it. After saving the dog, Shepard was overcome by the 39-degree water, came up for air once, then disappeared about 6 p.m. Sunday.

Two generators were operating at the Greer's Ferry Dam, about eight miles upstream, at the time of the accident, but have since been pulled offline to facilitate recovery efforts.

Dive teams from the White County Sheriff's Department, the Faulkner County Sheriff's Department, the Cleburne County Search and Rescue Team and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission were aided by the Pangburn Police Department in the search.

“The water was so cold, and divers can only stay down for a limited time, even with dry suits,” said Warren Darden, a member of the Cleburne County Search and Rescue Dive Team.

Was there a follow up story? Curious to know who witnessed the incident. For some reason I thought it was a girlfriend???

What a shame but at least he didn't drown if they are right. Not too late to repent.

Matt was my supervisor at Eaton! From what I was told and understand his wife was with him on the dock at the time and another man in a cabin next door was the eye witness and called 911! The Divers were still working on the Tue. after, when I and 5 employees others in 3 boats went up to help look! The following Sat. Myself and other Employees of Eaton in 8 boats with 16 people searched from the dock where he went in down to Lobo landing! Yesterday in plant wide meeting the new paper report was confirmed to the employees. Myself I still believe that he is in the river until I am proved wrong!

[Phil Lilley]

Hope he faked his death... better alive and in trouble than dead.

wonder why the authorities are saying what they're saying when there were 2 witnesses??? Egg on their face if he did drown.

Strange.

[RiverRunner]

There've been lots rumours floating around about this deal. The story I heard was that $40,000 was missing and he may be in Mexico. Who knows what the truth really is. I guess that's why they called the search off without finding him.

[Danoinark]

Its pretty unusual to not find a drowning victim in this length of time.

[taxidermist]

Wiith two units running and the water still cold, if he drowned and is under a log it will be sometime before the gases in the intestinal tract will float the body.

Back in the early 1970's a man from Boone Couty drowned in Bull Shoals, it was a couple maybe three months before he floated.

In 1993 during the big floods a man and his friend were floating the Smokey Hill in Kansas, their canoe turned over and he was never found. I helped search for him as part of the Search and Recover team using a boat with two 454 Chevy motors and Berkley Jet pumps.

Sad if he did this to avoid going to jail. Plus Mexico extradites(SP) these days. A friend who is in the Army(MP) sent me an email where he had been to Mexico City to pickup three AWOL soldiers the Mexican police had detained.