NO LUCK YET IN SEARCH FOR BOATER

The search for 42-year-old Ricky Wright continued along the Mississippi River on Tuesday without results, the Cape Girardeau Fire Department said.

Wright, of Commerce, Mo., was one of five people in a 15-foot pleasure boat that capsized around 10 p.m. on Saturday. The four others were rescued after their boat struck a barge that was used as a permanent dock by the Cape Girardeau Sand Co., said Tom Hinkebein, battalion chief.

Two separate crews from the Missouri State Water Patrol have assisted in the search, which has involved dragging grappling hooks along the river bottom and floating along the river banks looking for signs of Wright, Hinkebein said.

The Fire Department will evaluate the situation again Wednesday morning to see if the search will be continued, Hinkebein said.

"At this point, his body is either caught somewhere along the bank or it has been swept down river," he said. "In the latter case there's not much we can do."

The department is not as well equipped for search operations as for rescues, he said.

Searches have been conducted from Twin Tree Park South to just below Honker's Boat Dock. Late Tuesday a John boat from the state Water Patrol and another boat belonging to friends of Wright were still searching.

Other friends and relatives of Wright sat under a shelter by the boat dock Tuesday until sundown as boats floated up and down the river searching for Wright. A small wooden cross with United States flags stood in one corner of the shelter.

In a report from the Fire Department, it states that two of the passengers with Wright, Sherry Lee and Tim Everett, were able to grab hold of mooring cables after their boat capsized. Lee pulled herself onto the sand barge, and Everett was pulled from the water by firefighters.

The two other passengers, Theresa Jaco and her son, Kyle, had been swept under the sand barge. When they surfaced, they were able to float and swim down river. The boy was found on the south bank of Sloans Creek. Theresa Jaco was stranded on a brush pile just south of the boat dock. Both were rescued by a man who was boating in the area at the time of the accident.