Volunteers, authorities continue search for missing Bollinger County man

Friday morning, a six-person team from Puxico, Mo., searched on horseback for Matthew Willmirth on the other side of the Castor River from where others had previously searched. The 24-year-old has not been seen since Aug. 23.

Bollinger County deputies are backtracking from Willmirth's last known address in case they might find new clues. A team from Scott County searched earlier with cadaver dogs to no avail.

Willmirth walked away in an unfamiliar area near Zalma, Mo., on Aug. 23 after arguing with his brother. Willmirth's car had broken down, and his brother and mother had come to pick him up. After he walked off, his mother and brother got his car started again, and went back after him, but he was nowhere to be found.

Willmirth's family is upset because Bollinger County Sheriff Leo McElrath said he believes Willmirth is hiding and doesn't want to be found. The family knows only that he's missing and hasn't been heard from, and they want him back.

McElrath said he thought he might have a lead Wednesday night when one of his deputies noticed some activity on Willmirth's Facebook page.

"We can't figure out who got on his page or where," McElrath said. He said they tried to get a court order, but Judge Scott Thomsen "told us Willmirth is 24 years old and he has a right to walk off if he want to, and he's not going to give us a court order."

McElrath said that brief Facebook activity might have been the best lead he's had yet. Had there been evidence of foul play, he said, the judge might have granted the search warrant. Also, Willmirth has no mental illnesses and is well-educated and capable of looking after himself. The sheriff agrees that the judge is correct, but is frustrated by the law protecting Willmirth's privacy.

"He was with his mother and brother and they reported he walked away," McElrath said. "There is no evidence of foul play. We have not found anything that shows he has been beaten or shot or knifed."

The sheriff said that searchers have also found no evidence that Willmirth may have died.

McElrath said he has called for help from the Missouri State Highway Patrol. "I've done everything I can think of," he said.

Willmirth's family says they believe more could have been done sooner, and that they were insulted by McElrath's comment that he believes the young man is "playing possum."

Willmirth's grandmother, Glenda Belew of Summersville, Mo., claims the sheriff's department has never treated the case as a missing person case, and has told several news sources she doesn't consider him a missing person. She said the sheriff's department advised her and her family not to look for him themselves because if he were to be found dead, they didn't want the family to be the ones to find him.

McElrath has said that he has followed up on tips from anonymous callers claiming to have seen Willmirth; all of them proved to be false leads. Willmirth's mother, Connie Willmirth said she tracked down a tip she got, but the man she found looked somewhat like her son in height and build, but was blond. Her son has dark hair and eyes.

Investigators are frustrated because so many leads have turned out to be false. McElrath said he was told that Willmirth was seen at a home in Zalma playing cards. The homeowner said he hadn't been playing cards with anyone. Another tipster said Willmirth was in church last Sunday morning, but nobody knew which church. Much of the information given to McElrath, he said, has been conflicting.

Willmirth's grandmother and mother describe him as a young man who was never in trouble with the law. He did well in school and graduated magna cum laude from Southeast Missouri State University.

At the time he went missing he was upset and suicidal, and was rumored to have been under the influence of a controlled substance, his family said, but he was not a habitual user. Belew and Connie Willmirth said they believe Matthew Willmirth's case has not been given the attention it deserves because the sheriff's department doesn't believe he is worth looking for.

"Maybe because he might have been under the influence of something he is not that important," Connie Willmirth said.

"He never in the past did anything like that," Belew said. "He doesn't smoke, he's very careful about what he eats. He eats organic food, he always takes care of himself.

"The sheriff takes him as a druggie; he is not anything like that."

Connie Willmirth said the sheriff made her think that her son's disappearance is her fault. Looking back, she said, she wishes she had followed him when he left, but at the time she thought her two sons had just had a spat and would eventually make up. "What was I supposed to do?" she said.

Willmirth's family and friends have set up two Facebook sites seeking help in finding their lost loved one.

"We don't know where to look," McElrath said. "The family has put out fliers all over. People know he is missing; they know who to call. What more can I do? I hope he turns up soon."