Air surveillance, dogs, thermal imaging being used to find missing Missouri boy

Air surveillance. Cadaver dogs. Thermal imaging. These are some of the techniques the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department is using to locate a 13-year-old boy who went missing from an area residence over a week ago.

“A lot of the public doesn’t see what law enforcement is trying to do,” Sheriff Rick Lisenbe told The Rolla Daily News Thursday evening, noting that he has been out there every day since the teenager with autism was reported missing. “We’re looking at this like it’s one of our kids.”

Johnathan Shay went missing from his grandmother’s home in the 10000 block of County Road 3470, south of St. James, during the evening of July 9. 

Shay’s cousin, Xavier Baylor, 11, left with him but then wanted to come back. The two boys separated and Baylor was found July 10 in Dry Fork Creek near St. James by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper.

Sgt. George Arnold, of the sheriff’s department, told The Associated Press that Shay and Baylor had been playing in the yard of their grandmother's house in the St. James area when they disappeared July 9 after making plans to run away. 

"The information we had was that they split up and that the boy, Johnathan, made it clear that he wasn't going home and wasn't going to be found," Arnold said. "With that, we have reason to believe he has purposely decided to stay running."

"In this particular case, we believe he ran away and has full intentions of not coming back," Arnold told the AP, adding that the boy liked reading survival books and was into war video games.

Lisenbe said the sheriff’s department is treating this case more like a runaway child. Arnold told the AP that Shay, who Arnold described as "high-functioning autistic," had run away before but was always found within about 12 hours.
“There’s been a lot of air surveillance,” Lisenbe added, noting that about five to six flights have searched over the area where Shay was last seen. Cadaver dogs also have been searching along Dry Fork Creek, the sheriff said. 

In addition, officers with the patrol’s marine division have been looking and have searched the entire the creek to where it enters the Meramec River. “There’s deep holes,” Lisenbe said.

Sgt. Cody Fulkerson, public information officer with the MSHP Troop I region, said the patrol’s helicopter is no longer involved in the search. Marine division officers are assisting a dive team out of Jefferson City with the search in ponds, creeks and rivers. “We’re exhausting any and all places where this child could be,” Fulkerson said Friday.