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TEEN VANISHES IN EARLY HOURS

By Patty Wooten/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 10:16 AM CDT

Casey Bess Crowder left a friend’s Pickens home early Sunday morning headed home to Pine Bluff. She never made it.

The 17-year-old Watson Chapel High School senior apparently ran out of gas on U.S. 65, about 200 yards south of the new Dumas hospital where her car was found locked with the emergency flashers on.

Police say Crowder called her mother at 5:47 a.m. Sunday to tell her she was on her way home but about 20 minutes later, Crowder’s mother received a second call from her daughter saying she was out of gas.

“Her mother asked her if she needed to come get her but Casey said she’d call a friend. If she needed her she’d call her back,” said Desha County Sheriff Don Smith.

That was the last time anyone spoke with the blond-haired, green-eyed, softball player, though she did call and leave a message for her boyfriend’s brother, asking him to tell her boyfriend she needed him to bring her some gas, Smith said.

“He was at work and he left his cell phone at home so he didn’t get her message until Sunday afternoon,” Smith said.

Police began searching for Crowder around 1 a.m. Monday and issued a Morgan Nick alert Monday night.

Dozens of law enforcement officers and volunteers conducted a ground and air search of the area between Pickens, a farming community south of Dumas, and U.S. 65, where her car was found, before turning their attention to the farmland, breaks, and bayou between Pickens and Lincoln County.

Meanwhile, investigators conducted interviews and followed up on leads, 10th Judicial District Prosecutor Thomas Deen prepared subpoenas for certain records, and the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children helped prepare and distribute flyers and get information about Crowder into various databases.

Police say they didn’t find any evidence of foul play in Crowder’s car.

“Her cell phone and purse were gone but everything else — her softball bat, glove — was in there,” Smith said.

“She didn’t have a GPS tracking device on her cell phone but we know the cell phone is either turned off or destroyed because every time we dial her number it goes straight to her voice mail. It doesn’t ring.”

State Police Special Agent Scott Woodward, one of the investigators conducting interviews, said police have received a number of calls from people saying they think they saw someone matching Crowder’s description.

“But nothing panned out,” he added.

Deen, the prosecutor, said it’s unlikely Crowder would have voluntarily got into a vehicle with someone she didn’t know.

“From what her friends and family say, she would be very reluctant to get into a car with a stranger,” Deen said.

Crowder is described as a blond-haired, green-eyed, 17-year-old white female, about 5’1” in height, weighing about 105 pounds. Anyone with information about Crowders disappearance is asked to contact the Desha County Sheriffs Department at (870) 877-2327.

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