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July 23, 2012

Search to continue for missing man

The Times-Tribune

CORBIN — By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer

The search for Clarence Wayne Holmes, 32, in Laurel River Lake will continue into next week, said Albert Hale, Laurel County division of public safety manager Friday morning.

Holmes, of Winchester, was missing on July 5 when his boat was found drifting with the motor idling in neutral near Marsh Branch alongside a small island in the lake.

On Friday morning, Hale reported that a team from Boone County was on the water searching the bottom of the lake with sophisticated underwater sonar equipment.

The equipment can send information back to the surface from the bottom of the lake, which at the scene of the finding of the boat could be deep as 400 feet to the bottom, he added.

“They went out this morning and they are going to work ‘til they get tired and then they are coming in,” Hale said, noting that the search team may be on the lake through Sunday.

“I don’t know what resources we’re going to use from this point. Ultimately there will be a time when the search is going to stop. We’re hoping that with the equipment that Boone County has, we can have some luck,” Hale said,

He noted that about 75 people have been involved in the search since day one.

“As of Wednesday morning,” said Jerry L. Rains, of the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management, “The Laurel County Rescue Squad, spent 829 man-hours up until Wednesday.” That isn’t counting Thursday or Friday, according to rescue squad chief Larry Vanhook he added.

Numerous other agencies have participated.

Hale said U.S. Forest Service, Twilight Management, Bluegrass Search and Rescue, Madison County, KYK9 (a dog service), Commonwealth Search Incorporated of Kentucky, Lisa Powell of Whitley County, Carl Alexander with bloodhounds, Estill County search team, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife water patrol, as well as Boone County have been part of the search.

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