Volunteers renew search for woman
Texas group aids search for woman
By DAVID J. MITCHELL
Advocate Florida parishes bureau
Published: May 22, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.
HOLDEN — Volunteers from a Texas-based mounted search team, Livingston Parish sheriff’s investigators and area residents renewed efforts Wednesday to find a Holden woman missing since May 2.
Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery volunteers and others were working an area about a mile on either side of La. 1036 near the home of Barbara Blount, 58, a team volunteer said.
Blount was last heard from about 11:30 a.m. May 2. Investigators believe she was taken from her home against her will.
People on horseback, on four-wheelers and on foot could be seen returning from morning searches that started about 9 a.m. or were waiting to start anew shortly before noon.
Donald Wilkersin, 46, of Holden, showed up for the afternoon search Wednesday, saying he watched television news coverage that told how “they needed help today so I decided to come.”
Volunteers would not allow news reporters and photographers back to Blount’s house, which is a few hundred yards off La. 1036 and is where searchers and investigators gathered.
A day of searching by 10 EquuSearch members and between 20 and 30 local volunteers turned up little sign of Blount, Livingston Parish sheriff’s deputies and Texas EquuSearch member Lee Robertson said.
One of Blount’s relatives called on the Texans for help in locating the missing woman, said Cheryl Lawless, office administrator for the group based in Dickinson, Texas.
Previous searches by local volunteers, family members and deputies near Blount’s home and a quarter-mile away where her car was found May 2 have been hampered by rain, backwater flooding and the thick forests.
EquuSearch founder Tim Miller formed the group in August 2000 because of the high number of missing persons in south Harris and north Galveston counties in Texas. Miller’s daughter, Laura, was abducted and murdered in 1984. “Equus” is the classical Latin word for “horse.”
Robertson, 62, of Baytown, Texas, one of longest-tenured EquuSearch volunteers on the Blount search, said the going has been difficult in the woods.
“It is wet, muggy, dark and thick,” Robertson said.
On one side of Blount’s home is open pasture, but along the other is an area of densely forested bottomland and boggy wetlands. A creek runs alongside the long drive from La. 1036 to Blount’s house and then wraps behind the property immediately around her house and into the woods.
Robertson, who rode a four-wheeler to search for Blount, said some parts are best searched on foot because the woods are so dense. He said the group has an unmanned aerial vehicle, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, but the group has not used them because of the dense foliage.
EquuSearch also didn’t bring its horses because the group didn’t have time to file the proper paperwork to truck them across state lines, Robertson said. But four area volunteers searched on horseback during the day, he said.
Robertson said his group has received plenty of donated food and water in Livingston Parish, including some from members of Blount’s Magnolia Baptist Church. A sign at the church expressed the congregation’s concern: “We are praying for Barbara.”
Robertson also said an anonymous donor contributed money for the group’s fuel needs and has paid for hotel rooms. He said it is nice to work with people so willing to help one another.
“You’re a typical Texas rural community where everybody knows everybody,” he said.
Robertson said the group plans to search through Friday, if necessary, and can use more volunteers.
How to help
To help, call (877) 270-9500. Meet in the field next to the entrance of the drive to Blount’s house, 35580 La. 1036, Holden.
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