Search revamps for missing Chambers County man more than 30 years later
HOUSTON - Investigators in Chambers County are still working to find a man who went missing more than 30 years ago. So they're following up on every lead possible, including digging up an old well to see if they find him there.
As cold case detectives comb through the old file from 1991 one tip from back then says the missing man may be in an old water well on the property in a field, a quarter mile from the road, back beyond the tree line. So investigators, along with Texas Equusearch began to dig to see if they could find him.
"We wanted to run a cadaver dog on that location and see if there was any evidence," explains Chief Deputy John Leger with the Chambers Co. Sheriff's Office. "We did get an alert."
After that alert in the woods off of Highway 61 in Hankamer, Chambers County Sheriff's Office investigators continued digging in the old water well searching for Ronald Childress who's been missing since 1991.
"It was a tip that was in that case file from back then, and I don’t know if it wasn’t followed up on completely, or just needed more follow-up, but investigators felt like it was worth checking into again."
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So what have they found?
"We have some stuff that has potential, but we’re uncertain what it is at the moment. It could be an animal. We don’t know yet," the chief deputy explains.
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As the cold case investigators search the area for Childress, who Leger says is believed to have been killed decades ago, they did discover something worth sending to the lab for testing.
"We found one small bone fragment, which we’re not sure what it is. We did not find any other remains," says Leger.
Equusearch and the investigators finished digging the well yesterday. No word yet on when test results will be back on the bone fragment that was found.