Body found/recoverd at Cumberland.

[EJHick]

I knew of the individual who drowned. When did they find his body? Sad story.....

[Don Smith]

This is not the only time this unit has been used to recover a body. I can't direct you to it exactly, but while doing research on the Humminbird last year, I ran across a news clip. It basically explained how a body was recovered in the Mississippi River somewhere up north. The initial call to the state police stated that this guy had found a car, over 20 feet deep in MUDDY water, and gave a complete description of the car, right down to the type of hubcaps. The woman inside had been missing for several months, and had driven off the side of the road near a bridge.

If you do a little research, I am sure you can find it. Its a good read. I've only had the chance to use the unit at Lake Linville, taking a short idle about 1/4 mile down the lake and back. All I can say is once you get the concept down, its a great tool.

So much for hiding brushpiles, lol.

Don

[stratosjoe]

Discovered by accident in mere minutes with a Humminbird side scan in Danville Illinois strip pit

Katcher's mother: “The good thing is Ryan’s home.”

Coroner lists cause of death as drowning

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL

OAKWOOD — A mother’s hope was inextinguishable for Linda Katcher Griffith, even for the more than five years her son, Ryan, was missing.

“The sad thing is now the search is over,” she said Thursday. “The good thing is Ryan’s home.”

Griffith wept several times as she held a morning press conference at the Oakwood Fire Protection District station to talk about her feelings and reactions since Tuesday’s discovery of her missing son in his truck at the bottom of Clear Pond in Kickapoo State Park.

A picture of Katcher was brought to the press conference and placed on a stand next to his mother.

Surrounded by several family members and with her husband, Bruce, standing at her side, Griffith cried as she talked about the waiting and hoping she’s done since Nov. 5, 2000 — the day Ryan was reported missing.

“It’s hard today to realize the search is over,” she said. “We’ve strived to search for Ryan for 5½ years. There was always hope that Ryan could walk through the door at some time.”

She admitted her feelings of hope almost outweighed word of this week’s initial discovery.

“Even when they told me they found a truck, in my heart I kept thinking, ‘He’s probably not in there. He’s probably not in it.’”

With Griffith’s comments also came preliminary autopsy results from Vermilion County Coroner Peggy Johnson.

The coroner listed drowning as the cause of Katcher’s death.

She said doctors found no evidence of foul play or signs of blunt-force trauma.

“There are no injuries whatsoever anywhere on Ryan’s head,” Johnson said.

Katcher went missing after friends drove him home from a party on Henning Road.

Questions about his blood alcohol level, however, will remain a mystery.

Despite better-than-expected preservation of the body in the cab of the truck, toxicology tests that check for the level of alcohol in a person’s blood cannot be done, Johnson said.

The preservation, she said, left Katcher’s body similar to mummified remains, making any chance of taking a sample for the toxicology tests impossible.

An inquest for Katcher’s case is slated for Aug. 8.

His family is working on funeral services through Sunset Funeral Home. Griffith said her daughter is flying in from California, and she expected the visitation to be Tuesday with the funeral on Wednesday.

A large portion of Griffith’s comments came as thank-yous to the community, police and local media for helping keep her son’s story alive for the last 5½ years.

“You’ve went everywhere I have to tell his story,” she said. “While I continued to live with people spreading rumors, you spread the truth and kept him alive.”

She said searches were difficult, adding, “You don’t think there’s a lot of water in Vermilion County until you set a map down and start looking, start looking for a boy in a truck.”

Sheriff Pat Hartshorn was on hand for the news conference and said his department considers the Katcher case closed.

With that designation, he hopes the rumors end, as well.

“The 5½ years it’s taken to discover Ryan has led to so many conspiracy theories and mystery novel writers and people who have bothered the family and sometime tormented them,” he said.

“But the truth of the matter is it’s a tragic accident that took Ryan’s life.”