Web posted
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Man still missing since last weekend
By JOSHUA AMES
Courier Staff
After Jack Lee Howe didn't return home for two days over this past weekend, neighbor Lela Bright decided that the situation had become too fishy to ignore any longer.
Howe, 87, who lives at 20783 81st Road, is described as a white male, 5 feet, 8 inches, 100 pounds, gray hair, brown eyes and glasses. He was last seen wearing a light-blue pair of denim jeans and a long-sleeved red shirt with lightly colored suspenders.
According to Cowley Sheriff's Deputy Bill Mueller, Bright told police she became suspicious when Howe didn't return home Friday evening after leaving that afternoon to get a metal bucket for his dogs.
After two days went by and she hadn't seen him again, she reported him missing.
"We got the report yesterday around noon that he hadn't been seen since Friday," Mueller said this afternoon.
The situation got even more complicated when Cowley County personnel received reports Sunday afternoon that the Grant County Sheriff's Office in Oklahoma had found Howe's abandoned blue 1999 Ford Ranger with a white bed topper just off U.S. 81 early Sunday morning.
Mueller said Grant County Police found the truck less than a mile south of the Oklahoma/Kansas border, alongside a set of railroad tracks and right out of sight of vehicles passing on the highway.
According to Mueller, a preliminary search of the area where the truck was found yielded no results.
But early this morning, Grant County officers, along with interstate aid from the Sumner County Sheriff's Department and a Kansas Highway Patrol helicopter unit, conducted an extensive search of the area but again came up with no results as to Howe's whereabouts.
When Cowley County Sheriff's Department personnel received the report, they immediately began to contact his next of kin to see if they had heard anything from him.
"It took a little while to get a hold of his out-of-state family, but when we did, they hadn't heard from him either," said Mueller.
Howe's son, David Howe, said when he received word that his father had gone missing, he found the situation to be highly unusual given that his dad has always led a quiet life and never left the house much.
"This is the first time he's ever done anything like this," Howe said.
Howe said he hopes he hasn't seen his father for the last time, but now that Grant County has called off the search for him, he doesn't really know what's next.
"I don't really know what's going on, but I'm obviously hoping for the best," said Howe. "But right now, nobody knows where he is."
If anyone has seen Jack Lee Howe, or saw his truck between Friday and Sunday afternoon, they are encouraged to call the Cowley County Sheriff's Office at 221-5444 with any information on his whereabouts.
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