NEWTON, NC — Searchers with a cadaver dog didn’t come up with any answers on Tuesday after combing the property of Gregory Wood Products for Ken Mohler.
Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid said it doesn’t appear, right now, that Mohler is on the property.
Mohler, 71, from Hickory, went missing last week from the business, which is located near the county landfill. The last anyone has heard from Mohler was on Thursday, when he sent text messages to his wife and boss between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. A maintenance supervisor, Mohler had gone there to repair a leak in the afternoon, according to Sheriff’s officials.
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Investigators suspect foul play.
A co-worker of Mohler’s called 911 Friday morning when he found his truck in the business’ parking lot and discovered keys and Mohler’s business cell phone in the dirt near the truck.
Searchers with the Sheriff’s Office and cadaver dog team from Jones County started searching the site on Tuesday at 9 a.m. and left around 2 p.m. A Sheriff’s Office team also searched the area on Friday.
Reid said on Tuesday that investigators were interviewing potential witnesses who may know something. Reid planned to bring everyone together Tuesday evening to consider what to do next.
An Iredell County Sheriff’s searcher also helped Catawba County on Tuesday look for Mohler.
Family members are trying to stay positive and believe Mohler is still alive.
“That’s the only way we’ll let you search is if you stay positive,” said Tammy Pettry, Ken Mohler’s sister-in-law.
Ken Mohler Jr. and his wife, Rebecca, traveled from their home in Pennsylvania to help search for his father.
Family members and friends distributed hundreds of flyers and canvassed neighborhoods in Hickory, Newton and Conover over the weekend.
They stayed behind at the site on Tuesday afternoon to continue searching and say they’ll do so until they are satisfied. How long that will take, no one could say.
“We’re just searching and believing,” Pettry said. “And this is such a huge place it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
Pettry said she has searched the main building of the business at least 12 times, looking in every nook and cranny. Ken Mohler Jr. went up an industrial conveyor to look inside some silos on site and through the trailer of a transfer truck of sawdust. And they’ve also searched through outlying and dense wooded areas.
“If you can see it, we looked,” Ken Mohler Jr. said.
The family also kept their eyes on two stray dogs that have been hanging around the business. They say Ken Mohler fed and watered the dogs, even when he wasn’t working, and they were his constant companions at work.
When investigators took his truck from the site, one of the dogs followed the truck down the long road leading out from the business to Rocky Ford Road and continued on that road a bit. Family members have watched the dogs to see where they go. Ken Mohler Jr. said the strays stuck to his father like glue. One of the dogs just lies around now. On Tuesday, when a white truck that Ken Mohler used to drive left the property, the dog followed it down the road while family members called to it.
Who would want to hurt Mohler is the question the family has. Ken Mohler Jr. said, while his father is straight-forward, direct and never sugar-coated anything, he has no enemies. He said there was always a constant flow of people at his father’s house and everybody loved him.
Pettry described her brother-in-law as someone who is humble and meek and not a fighter. He had served in the military and is a “naturalist” who would know how to survive outdoors. She said while he may be in his 70s, he looks like he is in his 50s.
Ken Mohler Jr. said if his father had $50 in his pocket he would have given it to whomever could be responsible for his disappearance.
“This is just unbelievable,” Pettry said. “It’s like a nightmare you want to end.”
Pettry said for Ken Mohler Jr., the last place his father was seen is his only connection to his father because he’s not from the area.
“If they took him from here, he could be anywhere so this is the only place I know to look,” Ken Mohler Jr. said on Tuesday as he was waiting on word from the cadaver dog search.
Pettry said she believes if the person or people responsible are lazy enough to steal they want money, so family and friends plan to offer money. The family plans to start what Pettry calls a ransom fund.
Pettry said authorities have told her that Mohler might have interrupted a burglary in progress. Two motors that had been inside the building were found outside, she said.
The family also wants to get word out about Ken Mohler’s disappearance to as many people as possible.
“I don’t like the cameras stuck in my face, but you do what you’ve got to do,” Ken Mohler Jr. said.
Anyone with any information on Mohler’s disappearance is asked to call the Catawba County Sheriff’s office at 828-464-5241.
