OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Police positively identified the body found in Indian Creek on Monday as that of Jeff Bridge of Overland Park. Bridge left his home on Sunday, May 6 to look at flood waters near his home. An autopsy on Tuesday confirmed his identity.
Police spokesperson Gary Mason said they found the Bridge’s body near 109th and El Monte St. in Indian Creek.
For six days, search and rescue teams with the police and fire departments looked for the 36-year-old, but their efforts were halted in the afternoon.
Related: Search Continues for Missing Man
“About 2:30 in the afternoon they came across the bridge here on the other side of Roe and found a body in the water,” said Mason.
Mason said the body was taken away in a white van, off to find out if it is that of Bridge.
Bridge went missing on May 6, after telling family he was going to look at the flood waters. But police say it appears mother nature may have been too much for Bridge that night, as neighbors like Autumn Betzer have witnessed.
“It could pull you away right away if you got your foot in it or something,” Betzer said.
Crews scoured miles along the creek after that, including the spot where Bridge’s body was found. It is no more than five miles from Bridge’s home.
Police said it helped that water levels have gone down about 10-feet since the storms.
“We’d actually been though that area about six times through the water and the sides of the banks, looking in different directions and different people and various times, so it was not there previously, so we think it got relocated,” Mason said.
The family is expected to release a statement on Wednesday.
