It was kind of like an episode of the television show “Cold Case.”
Hillsboro Police Chief Charles Bennett said he was poring over files of unsolved cases recently when he picked up the file concerning Joan Travis.
Travis, who lived in the Oakwood Terrace subdivision in Hillsboro, was 52 when she disappeared in March 1998. Not much has happened on the case since.
However, Bennett said he picked up on something that was worth checking out.
“The case said that a person of interest in the case was spotted coming out of the area of the lake on Castle Ranch,” he said. “It noted that it was an unreliable witness, but that it had really never been checked out.”
On Tuesday (June 12), Bennett decided to check it out. He was joined on the property, which is just south of Hillsboro, by a team of six Hillsboro police officers, a detective from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, firefighters from the Hillsboro and De Soto Rural fire protection districts and the De Soto Fire Department, plus seven or eight cadaver-sniffing dogs and up to 15 of their handlers.
He said he obtained permission from the executor of the estate that now controls the 154-acre ranch to search the area. He said the owners of the ranch were never suspects in the case.
Bennett said at the entire ranch property was searched in an effort that began at 7 a.m. and wrapped up around 2:30 p.m.
He said the dogs detected nothing until three or four of the canines, aboard De Soto Rural Fire’s boat, picked up a scent in the middle of the largest lake on the property.
“They’ve been known to find bodies up to 10 years old underwater,” Bennett said.
Bennett then called upon the services of the High Ridge Fire Protection District’s dive team, whose sonar equipment scanned the lake under the water’s surface.
“The dogs caught a scent, but the lake is so overgrown, it’s impossible to tell,” Bennett said. “The lake has not been used for years.”
Bennett said he looks at the case and other unsolved crimes from time to time to see if he can come up with any new leads to pursue.
“We’ve searched around a house in Clearwater that she (Travis) used to own, but I just wanted to clear this area,” he said. “I figured it can’t hurt to at least follow it up.”
Not that Bennett is completely satisfied with Tuesday’s results.
“I’m not saying we wouldn’t go back and check again,” he said. “I’m not able to say there is or there isn’t (a body) in the lake. But I’m satisfied we have done everything we can do right now.”
-- Steve Taylor
