Thursday marks day two of crews searching the Mississippi River for a missing man.
Members of the Bolivar County Emergency Management Agency arrived at the public boat launch at the Rosedale-Bolivar County before sunrise Wednesday morning to start the search.
They had received a call about a man falling off of a boat and into the water.
According to the report from the Bolivar County Sheriff’s Office, Leslie Jenkins called in the incident at 5:48 a.m. Wednesday.
“(She) called and advised that a male subject by the name of Stephen Miller possibly went overboard into the Mississippi River,” the report read. “(She) advised that upon returning from their shift, Stephen Miller was nowhere to be accounted for. (She) stated that she last saw him in the Rosedale JanTran port area.”
Miller was working as a deckhand for JanTran Inc. when he reportedly fell and it was not known if he was wearing a life vest at the time.
“They assume he fell off the boat. They don’t know (exactly) what time it was,” said Port Director Robert Maxwell. “They have a general idea. Nobody really knows anything.”
The search lasted over 12 hours Wednesday, beginning just before 6 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m.
Search and rescue crews decided to continue searching the water today after yesterday’s search yielded no results.
Quinton stressed that he and his crews would continue searching the river.
“We'd like to be there for the family to recover the individual,” he said. “We'll (search) until we run out of people who can go.”
Multiple methods are being used to find Miller. The county K-9 units have been used, EMA crews are out in boats searching the river and a fly-over search was called.
The Bolivar County EMA teams are out in two boats scouring the river.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Department was also called in yesterday to assist. Several of their officers are back in Rosedale today for the search.
There are conflicting reports about where Miller fell overboard whether it was in the Mississippi River or at the port.
The Bolivar County Sheriff’s Department is not involved with the search and rescue, though they are investigating how the initial incident occurred.
According to Chief Deputy of the First Judicial District of Bolivar County Mike Thompson, the sheriff’s department is looking into what happened when Miller disappeared from the boat.
“There is no reason to suspect foul play but we just started (investigating),” said Thompson. “This is a routine investigation.”
JanTran Inc. reportedly has four of its own search and rescue boats out on the river.
The Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks has also been assisting in the search.