Palm Sunday service includes prayers for missing teen

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- As worshipers placed palm branches on the altar Sunday evening at Miraculous Medal Shrine Church, their thoughts and prayers were with a missing Ste. Genevieve teenager and his family.

Wade M. Lurk, 17, was last seen sleeping in his car during the early morning hours of April 1 at Goose Creek, a campsite near the border of Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties.

Sunday marked the start of the Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday. And at the conclusion of Palm Sunday service, authorities still had no answers about Lurk's whereabouts.

Brooke Lurk placed petitions at the altar on behalf of her missing brother, Wade Lurk, at the Shrine Church in Perryville Sunday. (Fred Lynch)

About 100 people attended the service, and many were friends and members of Lurk's youth group, Vincentian Marian Youth, a Catholic-based organization that focuses on serving the poor.

"It's just so hard to believe he's gone," said Janet Schwent, youth group co-minister. "It's an emptiness, and you just don't know how long that emptiness is going to be there."

Schwent has known Lurk since the eighth grade, when he attended a confirmation retreat with the Vincentian Marian Youth group. Lurk had been active in the group since then.

Schwent said Lurk went on a mission trip to Perryville the weekend of March 24 through 26.

Valle Catholic High School sophomores Rachael Naeger and Kurt Wehner have known Lurk, a senior, for several years. The two youth group members attended the mission trip with Lurk several weeks ago.

"He's just really nice and makes conversation with everyone," Naeger said before the church service. "Every time I saw him in the hall, he would say hi."

Naeger looked down at her shirt, glancing at a yellow ribbon all Valle students are wearing in support of Lurk and his family.

"It doesn't feel like this is real," Naeger said as tears formed in her eyes.

The Valle students said counselors were at the school last week to offer guidance and support.

Youth minister Schwent said Lurk loves to play guitar and wrote several contemporary Christian songs. He is also a starter on the Valle High School baseball team and is enrolled at Missouri State University, Schwent said.

The Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff's Department began searching the Mississippi River's Little Rock Landing, also known as the Modoc Ferry Landing, on Friday. Authorities have searched rural areas of Ste. Genevieve County, and the Missouri Water Patrol has used sonar gear to scan Goose Creek.

Neither Valle student believes Lurk ran away.

"He has a good family life," Wehner said. "I just don't know what happened."

Before going missing, the teen had been attending a party with about 40 others at Goose Creek.

"Like all teens, Wade teetered back and forth, but he always stood for what he believed in," Schwent said. "We have to accept what God's giving us right now and pray for the best."

Anyone with information about Lurk or his car, a white 1990 Nissan Stanza with Missouri license 720-WCC, is asked to call the Ste. Genevieve Sheriff's Department at (573) 883-5215 or (573) 883-5820.

A $25,000 reward is being offered for information about the teen's whereabouts.

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246