Volunteers resumed the search for missing Peru State College student Tyler Thomas on Sunday.
The 19-year-old freshman from Bellevue was last seen in early December. Investigators had focused their efforts on a stretch of the Missouri River near a Peru boat dock, but flooding this summer suspended the search.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
The emotions of Tyler’s disappearance are still raw for many. Her cousin Kanetta Thomas has been bonded to her since they were children. “It’s kind of hard that she’s not here, because I don’t get to share anything with her that I would normally get to share with her and talk to her.”
Around a dozen volunteers, made up of friends, family and strangers to Ty walked the river near where she was last seen almost a year ago, looking for any sign of her. “It’s just more of a gut-wrenching thing every day that she’s not here with our family.”
“They don’t know anything,” said family friend Shannon Ennis. “Where’s my daughter? Is she going to be found? You know closure is the main thing and if we can answer any of those questions, that’s how I feel about it.”
While searchers walked the banks, the US ATV search team and a private investigator brought in dogs able to seek out human remains. Every single person was not only searching for “Ty,” but looking for justice and closure for her family.
“I’ve seen firsthand the worry that they go through, not knowing if they’re here, where they’re at or what’s happened to them so it helps give them closure,” said US ATV searcher Derek Beier.
At the Peru boat dock where a life full of promise may have ended, her family stood, some for the first time Sunday afternoon, waiting for the closure so desperately desired.
Searchers did not find anything, but have not lost hope. They said they will be back in Peru very soon, searching again. Anyone with information about the her disappearance is asked to contact the Nemaha County Sheriff’s Department in Auburn at 402-274-3139.
Authorities suspect Joshua Keadle, a former Peru State student originally from Swansea, South Carolina in Thomas’ disappearance. Police have accused him of providing false information and tampering with evidence in the case, but no charges have been filed against him in this case. Keadle has been charged with two separate sexual assaults in Nebraska.
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