It’s been nearly two years since a Central Kentucky man disappeared during a storm while boating on Laurel Lake. Although the efforts to find Clarence Holmes have never stopped, an out of town search team is bringing new hope of a recovery.
“If you lose hope you will give up and we don’t ever plan on giving up,” said Clarence’s aunt, Traca Wooton. It’s that determination which inspired a group of divers and a cadaver dog team to travel from Louisiana and New York, to help a stranger in need.
“They volunteered their time, their effort and their equipment just to come and help the family,” said Wooton. “It’s awesome, capital A awesome,” said Clarence’s mother, Sylvia Holmes.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
Mark Michaud is a police officer in Slidell Louisiana and is an expert diver. He heard Clarence’s story from a group called VEER (Vehicle Vessel Entrapment Escape Resource). The family of a child who drowned in New York the same day Clarence went missing in July of 2012, is part of VEER and wanted to help. So Michaud called the Help! Search & Rescue Dog Team and asked them to bring in their volunteer team of dogs.
All of the volunteers were moved by what happened to Clarence on July 5th 2012. He was on the lake when a sudden storm hit. His boat was later recovered near an island, however Clarence was nowhere to be found.
“He’s their family, he needs to come home, they need to know where he is,” said Michaud. “We are trying to help bring closure to the family,” said Don Blair with Help Search & Rescue Dog Team. On Tuesday, they got one step closer.
“Today went good, we went out early this morning and we alerted about eight different spots,” said Blair. “I think today went good enough, it gave us a target area that we like,” added Michaud.
The dogs were able to mark several spots where they caught a scent. The hard part now is the 130 feet deep, cold, tree infested water that lies below. Still, that’s not stopping this team.
“We are ready to say, let’s go look at it and see what we can find,” said Michaud. He called in a backup diver, and they plan to take pictures and start diving on Tuesday.
Now Clarence’s family is watching, waiting, and wishing for all of this the end. “Keep us in your prayers pray that this is our last search and we don’t have to keep going through this,” said Wooton.
The family said the community can help the search by donating gas money for the boats. You can reach them for directions on the “Come Home Clarence” facebook page.
