Body found, believed to be brother of Baltimore Ravens’ Ed Reed
After trying to discover the whereabouts of Brian Reed, brother of Baltimore Ravens’ safety Ed Reed, the search has likely come to an end.
After Ed sent Texas EquuSearch, a private search team, to look for Brian’s body in the Mississippi River, searchers have recovered a body near where Brian jumped into the water.
Tim Miller, Director of EquuSearch told a local television station that they cannot confirm the identity of the recovered body until an autopsy is complete; however, the body is believed to be Brian’s.
The discovery of a body ends a seven-day search that used sonar and even dragging the river to find the missing body.
29-year-old Brian was pulled over by the police after being chased for a reckless driving violation on the morning of January 7, 2011. He then stopped on a bridge over the Mississippi River, where he jumped into the water and disappeared.
"The suspect jumped into the river, went about 15 feet according to the deputy," Sgt. Dwayne LaGrange, a spokesman for the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office. "At some particular point they said he did witness hands and head come up and go under the water and never resurface again."
Karen Reed, mother of Brian and Ed, said that Brian had problems with alcohol and drugs in the past. She also said that police were able to recover her son’s shoes and jacket before they called the search off on the evening of January 8. As for Brian’s vehicle that was reported to be stolen, she said that the car belonged to one of her sons.
Ed then sent EquuSearch to search the river on Monday, but the search halted due to rain and was started again on Tuesday. They had located an image on the sonar that was believed to be Brian’s body, but divers were unable to find it.
"We had the perfect image," said Miller. "There's no doubt it was him but it was in an area that has so much debris that doing anything there, it's really hard.”
Miller thought that the body had been dislodged when the divers were removing debris, meaning that the body could have easily been caught in the river’s swift current and taken as far as the Gulf of Mexico. The family had been optimistic on Sunday about finding the body but their hopes started fading off on Monday, as they believed that the body had moved further down the river.
Luckily for them, they were able to locate the body. The Reed family is currently awaiting the completion of the autopsy to confirm whether its Brian’s body or not.
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