Police identify man found dead in Cumberland River last week

Rescue workers used a boat along a section of the Cumberland River in eastern Whitley County Thursday to recovery the unidentified body of a man found by a fisherman. Officials say a body had been reported seen floating down the stream several weeks ago.

Authorities have tentatively identified a man, whose body was found floating in the Cumberland River Thursday morning near Maiden Bend Road.

Whitley County Sheriff Colan Harrell and Coroner Andy Croley announced Monday afternoon that the man has tentatively been identified as Bruce Carl Childress, 47, who was originally from Dayton, Ohio.

Harrell said that Childress came to Whitley County during the first week of July, and had been staying at his brother’s house, which is located along the banks of the Cumberland River off Highway 92E near Croley’s Store.

The location of the home was about four to five miles from where Childress’ remains were discovered, Harrell said.
He said that it appears Childress was probably swept away by flood waters or fell in by accident.

Childress was never reported as missing, but his ex-girlfriend recognized the description put out in the media, and contacted authorities, who she met with about 1:30 p.m. Monday.

The ex-girlfriend identified Childress through looking at pictures of his body, and also knew about a metal piece that was located in his neck, Harrell said.

Authorities are running Childress prints to further verify the identification, Harrell said.

Dr. Christen Roth autopsied Childress’ body Friday morning at the state medical examiner’s office in Frankfort and ruled the cause of death as drowning, both Harrell and Croley said.

Roth determined that the man was over the age of 40, but there is no way to determine how long he had been in the river, Croley said.

"There is no way to pin point that. There are too many variables, such as running water, the air, obstacles in the river, etc. There is no way to pin point an exact time," he added.

The man was found wearing a white tank top shirt, commonly referred to as a "wife beater," shorts, which are possibly red in color, and one crocheted moccasin shoe on his right foot, Harrell said.

Authorities examined the possibility that the body found Thursday was the same one observed last month floating in the river, but have since ruled that out as a possibility, Harrell said.

"The timing is just not right with this," he added.

Earlier body sighting

The body was found about four to five miles downstream from where two people reported seeing a body floating in the river on June 20, said Whitley County Emergency Management Director Danny Moses.

About 5:30 p.m. on June 20, two men observed what they thought was a body on a log floating in the Cumberland River near the bridge off Highway 779 near Highway 11.

"They weren’t for sure what they saw, so they came down to the Louden Bridge to get a better look, and then they went onto the Williamsburg boat ramp," said Moses.

The two men weren’t sure what to do, and notified authorities about 8:30 p.m. that night concerning their possible body sighting.

"They were pretty sure with the description they gave and I’m pretty sure too that (a body) is what they saw," Moses noted.
Authorities put a boat in the river that evening, but were unsuccessful in their hunt for the body.

The men, who reported the June 20 sighting, said that the man was wearing red shorts and no shirt.

Moses said that if the body sighting was that of the man found Thursday, he can see where someone wouldn’t have thought the man was wearing a shirt.

He said the shirt was white, but was wet with mud on it, and was almost flesh colored.

Williamsburg Fire and Rescue responded to the scene Thursday morning with the department’s boat, which was used by Croley to help pull the body from the river to shore.

Others assisting at the scene included: Williamsburg Police Detective Bobby Freeman, Whitley County Sheriff’s Sgt. Shawn Jackson, Deputy Dave Lennon, Kentucky State Police Detective David Lassiter, Moses, and Jerry Rains, Kentucky Division of Emergency Management Area 11 Manager.

Accidental find

The body might not have been found for quite some time if John Thomas Jr. hadn’t taken the day off of work Thursday to go fishing on his family farm in eastern Whitley County.

Thomas, 19, lives with his family about 100 yards from where he spotted the body that emergency officials pulled from the river shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday.

"I skipped work, and I ran to the bait shop besides Brown’s Creek and the pay lake to get some worms and some shrimp. I got everything ready for all day fishing," Thomas said.

He drove his four-wheeler down to the creek to a fishing hole that his uncle had told him about and unloaded his supplies.

"In the exact spot that I was going to fish I looked down and saw a little brush pile. I saw something floating, but I figured it was a dead animal at first," Thomas said. "I looked closer and I saw heels coming up and a head."
Immediately he called his mother, Deborah L. Thomas, to tell her what he found.

Mom admits that initially she was a little suspicious because her son can be a bit of a jokester, and she thought it was probably a dead animal.

"He had just got down here. He called me on the phone and said, ‘I know that you are not going to believe this, but I think I’m looking at a body,’" Deborah recalled.

"Then he corrected himself and said, ‘No, mom. I know I am looking at a body!’"

John was adamant that it was a body, and Deborah called the sheriff’s department about 9:15 a.m. asking whether Harrell or Chief Deputy K.Y. Fuson was in.

Both were out, but one of the office workers told her Sgt. Shawn Jackson was there, whom Deborah Thomas spoke with.

After explaining the situation to Jackson, he asked her for directions to her residence.

Deborah Thomas said that when she walked down to the river, it was obvious it was a real human body.

"It’s like something I have seen on television, but I have never seen anything like that in real life," she said.

Making the most of a bad situation

While John Thomas waited by the river for police to arrive, he did a little fishing. He caught to fish while he waited, his mother noted.

John Thomas said that the body got hung on a log in some brush, which kept it from floating down stream.

"It’s the reason he was still there when I came down here, or else he would have floated off," John Thomas said.

"The farm has been in the family for about five generations," Deborah Thomas said. "As far as I know, there have been multiple animals that have been deceased and spotted in the river, but for as long as I can  remember there has never been a body."

She said that the body explains why she had been seeing buzzards flying around the area for the past few weeks.

John Thomas decided to try and make the most of his day off. After authorities arrived, Thomas headed to the other side of the river to fish.

"I’m going to try and catch something today irregardless though," Thomas added.