Survey crew finds missing man's body

VAN BUREN -- The body of a man reported missing three months ago by his family was discovered Tuesday at the bottom of a deep ravine along U.S. 60 in Van Buren.

Authorities believe Douglas Todd Johnson, 39, of Van Buren was killed in a single-vehicle accident on May 25 "just right up here, a quarter of a mile from the James Street entrance to Van Buren," according to Carter County Coroner Dennis McSpadden.

"We don't know what time the accident was, but it was early in the morning," McSpadden said. " ... He was seen early in the morning on the 25th and hadn't been seen since. His wife reported him missing, but nobody found him."

McSpadden said the reason the accident wasn't discovered was because of its location.

"I've driven by there hundreds of times the last three months," McSpadden said. "I got out there yesterday and couldn't see the vehicle from the highway at all. The brush is so thick."

When the Missouri Highway Department's survey crew found the van and Johnson's body, they notified the Missouri State Highway Patrol to investigate.

It's believed the vehicle left the east side of the road, and he was traveling west at that time, McSpadden said.

After leaving the roadway, Johnson's 1993 Chevrolet van is believed to have then went down in one of these fields that the new highway created, McSpadden said.

There were no skid marks on the roadway, but "there are tracks that go right between the cliff and guardrail," McSpadden said. "They were still visible yesterday."

McSpadden believes the van probably overturned several times before coming to rest at the bottom.

According to McSpadden, the vehicle is believed to have gone down several hundred feet from the roadway.

"I don't have that information either because it was one of those fields that goes down, then flattens out, then goes down some more," he said. "It was steep. He was at the very bottom of it."

As the van traveled down, Johnson was ejected from the vehicle, said McSpadden.

Although McSpadden doesn't know the exact distance, he estimated that Johnson's body was found several feet from his vehicle.

McSpadden said a forensic pathologist at Mineral Area Regional Medical Center in Farmington, was to do an autopsy Wednesday.

Although the cause of death will be officially determined at that time, McSpadden said, it will be "due to the motor-vehicle accident."

Identification will also be confirmed at that time through the use of dental records, McSpadden said.