Body found in river may be missing man

EDITOR's NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect that Kirsten Caruso is Joey Caruso's step-mother, not his mother.

A couple fishing Monday morning on the Mississippi River discovered a body they believe to be that of a Cape Girardeau man who vanished Friday night, but authorities late Monday hadn't identified the body as the missing man.

Wayne Jones, who is employed part-time in the Southeast Missourian's circulation department, said he and his wife, Lin, were fishing across from the Southeast Missouri Port Authority on Monday morning when they noticed something in the water.

"All at once, it came floating by," he said. "I told her, 'That looked like a body to me.'"

The couple called 911 and kept the body in sight by circling it with their boat until authorities arrived, Jones said.

"We didn't touch it. ... We just kept circling it so we wouldn't lose sight of it," he said.

Jones said authorities found a wallet containing Joey Caruso's identification on the body.

Caruso, 24, was reported missing Saturday night, said Darin Hickey, public information officer for the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

In an email message sent to news outlets, Caruso's step-mother, Kirsten Caruso, said he may have gone out with friends Friday night at The Pony nightclub in East Cape Girardeau.

In her email, Kirsten Caruso said it is unlikely her son would have disappeared on his own, as he is recently engaged, and he and his fiancee are looking forward to the birth of a child.

Roger Money, who identified himself as Joey Caruso's uncle, echoed that sentiment Monday.

"Joey wasn't the kind of guy to do something like that," he said.

Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter confirmed identification was found on the body, but he declined to release details, pending notification of family members and confirmation that the identification belonged to the man whose body it was found on.

In a telephone interview, Money confirmed his nephew's body had been found, but a woman identifying herself as Caruso's sister later said no one in the family had identified the body as of Monday afternoon.

Walter said an autopsy scheduled for today should reveal the cause of death and whether the victim suffered any trauma, but for the time being, authorities are treating the death as a homicide.

Money said Caruso left his car at a friend's home Friday night and took a shuttle to The Pony. His friends thought he was planning to take the shuttle back to his car, but sometime after 1 a.m. Saturday, they realized he hadn't come back, Money said.

Hickey said Caruso's car had been found at a home in Cape Girardeau.

Money said Caruso's cellphone was in his father's name, so his father contacted the company and learned two calls had been made from the phone early Saturday morning -- one at 2:58 a.m. and one at 3:02 a.m.

"He called both of those numbers, and they said, 'I don't know who he is,'" said Money, who called the circumstances surrounding his nephew's disappearance "sketchy."

Hickey confirmed that police were looking at Caruso's cellphone records as part of their investigation. He declined to comment on what they found or to speculate on what may have happened to Caruso.

"We are going to investigate it 100 percent. We're going to look at everything. We want to rule out any possibilities, and we won't make a determination of what happened until the evidence tells us what happened," Hickey said. "If we start guessing, we're not getting anywhere then."

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Southeast Missouri Port Authority, Scott City, Mo.