Man finds wife's body near site of car accident hours later

BOLIVAR, Mo. -- A Polk County man is angry about finding his wife's body below a bridge hours after a deputy found her wrecked car and ordered it towed.

Frank Dartt also is asking whether his 48-year-old wife, Brenda, would have survived if she had been found earlier.

After his wife failed to show up for work, Dartt called her cell phone, and a worker for a towing company answered. Dartt learned her car had been towed from a bridge on Route KK around 2 a.m. Wednesday. The deputy who found her car had searched for survivors and assumed the vehicle had been abandoned.

Dartt conducted his own search that afternoon and found his wife's body below the bridge.

The coroner conducted an autopsy but was awaiting toxicology results before reaching a conclusion.