Body ID'd as missing Cape man

When police in Madison County, Ill., began investigating the discovery of a body discovered in the Mississippi River in May, their goal was to find out who the man was.

Now that dental records and fingerprint analysis reports positively identify him as Lance A. Daugherty, a Cape Girardeau man reported missing May 16, their quest becomes finding out how he ended up 135 miles upstream, said Capt. Brad Wells, chief detective of the Madison County Sheriff's Department.

Before Daugherty's body was positively identified Tuesday, Cape Girardeau police were continuing to investigate the missing persons case, but suspected it might have been a suicide, said spokesman Sgt. Barry Hovis. When police subpoenaed Daugherty's cell phone records, they discovered his phone was in use by someone who claimed to have found it, along with Daugherty's glasses and wallet, on a railing of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.

Evidence indicated Daugherty may have jumped, police said.

A friend with whom Daugherty had been staying, Marybeth Rhodes, said in a prior interview she went to work and came home to find him gone but that she didn't grow worried until early the next morning, when he still hadn't returned.

The Kentucky State Police Water Patrol Lakes Division spent a day searching both the Missouri and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River, but found nothing.

Daugherty was last seen by his parents when he stopped by their Cape Girardeau residence May 15 to pick up his walking shoes.

A towboat worker noticed the body of Daugherty in the river in Godfrey, Ill., on May 23 and notified police immediately, Wells said.

Police sifted through numerous missing persons reports from Missouri and Illinois all summer in an attempt to identify the body, and finally contacted a forensic dentist, who used dental records supplied by Daugherty's parents to make a positive identification.

A fingerprint card was also taken from Daugherty's previous employer and compared to the body, Wells said.

An autopsy indicated the cause of death was drowning, and nothing indicated that Daugherty had suffered any trauma, he said.

The next step in the investigation is finding out how Daugherty ended up in Madison County, Wells said.

On May 15, the Mississippi River was 33.5 feet high with a strong, fast current, and flooding caused an excess of debris, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's Web site.

Though it is possible for the body to have traveled that far upstream if it had gotten hooked onto a barge, investigators may never know exactly what happened, Wells said.

Daugherty had been studying radiology at Southeast Missouri State University and was an avid musician, Rhodes said.

"He was a good guy, never wanted to hurt anybody," said Ed Strauser of Phoenix.

Strauser had formed the band Solid State in 1995 with Daugherty after the two worked together at McDonald's in Cape Girardeau and became friends when they discovered they had similar taste in music, he said.

"He was our main songwriter in the band," Strauser said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245