AUTHORITIES IDENTIFY MAN'S BODY PULLED FROM RIVER

The search for a missing boater ended Wednesday afternoon when authorities identified the body of Ricky Wright of Commerce, Mo.

Wright had been missing since July 1 when the boat he was driving ran out of fuel, hit a barge and capsized north of Cape Girardeau near a dredging operation. Four other people were in the boat when it capsized; all of them survived the accident.

The Cape Girardeau County Coroner's office had hoped to make an identification as early as noon Wednesday, but that depended on finding forensic dentists and getting access to medical records, said John Clifton, deputy coroner.

Lt. David James of the sheriff's department said a tentative identification had been made based on descriptions of scars, marking and clothing given by relatives, but officials were confident that it was Wright.

A press release issued by the coroner's office around 5 p.m. Wednesday said the identification came after an autopsy was completed. The cause of death was listed as an accidental drowning.

Wright's family and Missouri Water Patrol officials had searched several days for his body near the site of the accident, which was near the Honker's Boat Club along North Main Street.

Family members said friends and authorities continued searching the river farther south near Caruthersville but that search ended Monday when word reached the water patrol that a body had been retrieved.

"We've not been to work since this accident took place," said Saundra Blankenship, Wright's sister.

Cape Girardeau firefighters and rescue personnel pulled the body from the river Tuesday evening near the Themis and Water streets floodgate. Authorities said a passing towboat had spotted the body and notified a U.S. Coast Guard boat docked nearby.

If the body had not been identified by Wright's family, the coroner's office would have sent inquiries to other communities where people are suspected to be missing in the river, Clifton said. At least one man in the St. Louis area is believed to have drowned in the river.

Most often cases of missing persons cannot be closed until a body is recovered, said Lt. John Brown of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

"You can't close the case, not in good conscience, until you find a body," he said. "Technically they can't be closed because there are always unanswered questions."

Brown said in his 30 years with the department only about 10 missing persons cases have involved boating accidents on the river.