Butler County authorities drained a lake earlier this week in their continued search for a local man whose family reported him missing more than two years ago.
Connie Goodwin, the mother of Edward Acie Goodwin, reported her 32-year-old son missing on July 5, 2015. Investigators have verified Goodwin was last seen on June 29, 2015.
"He was actually last seen by an individual who dropped him off at a job site (on County Road 560), where he was doing home remodeling," Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs said earlier.
Since that time, "we've dedicated hundreds, if not thousands, of man hours to searches and pursuing literally hundreds of leads," Dobbs explained. "We've expended a lot of resources and overtime budget for the last two years" on the investigation.
That investigation, Dobbs said, led them to obtaining a search warrant for a private-property lake, located off of County Road 572, about three-tenths of a mile off of Highway T.
"We've always known that was his last known location," said Dobbs, who indicated the information was obtained from "one of the suspects, Eldrid Smith."
Smith, according to earlier reports, gave officers what Dobbs earlier described as a "detailed statement" about an alleged assault and robbery of Goodwin, which Smith "had arranged with several other people."
Smith and Goodwin, the sheriff said, were "very familiar" with each other, and "at the time of the incident, they were working together on a remodeling project at a house in Butler County.
"Ed Goodwin, no doubt, had a level of trust with Eldrid Smith and had no idea that Smith was setting him up for retaliation. Apparently, there was a grudge over past drug transactions between Ed Goodwin and the group who eventually assaulted him."
Smith was charged in October 2015 with assaulting Goodwin; however, those charges later were dismissed by the state to allow time for more evidence to be found, including Goodwin's body.
Smith had been accused of taking Goodwin to a place where others allegedly beat on him with metal objects.
"Between the fact it was his last known location, as well as some information he could possibly be in that lake, we thought it was a good idea, if nothing else, to eliminate it" by draining it, Dobbs said.
Officers, Dobbs said, previously had searched the area, but had not "searched the lake."
Dobbs described the lake as being about one to two acres in size and probably 10 feet deep at its deepest part.
"It was a pretty expansive undertaking to drain it," he said. "It required the assistance of the Butler County Highway Department to breach the levee."
On Tuesday, Dobbs said, an excavator was used to breach the levee, which was probably 12 feet high.
According to Dobbs, there was "a lot of earth to be moved."
Once the levee was breached, the water emptied into a dry creek, said Dobbs, who indicated the excavator subsequently "ran off out room" with its claw.
Two pumps, the sheriff said, then were put in the middle of the lake with a boat to "pump the rest out ... at the deepest spot it was (another) three to four deep" there.
The lake's draining concluded on Wednesday.
"It's outcome revealed nothing helpful to the investigation other than just to eliminate it," Dobbs said. " ... Unfortunately, like in many cases similar to this, there has been no shortage of untrue rumors that bog our investigation down."
Dobbs said investigators feel "pretty confident we know who our suspects are and feel fairly confident that the victim was killed in close proximity to the lake we drained."
With the passage of time, Dobbs said, he knows Goodwin's disappearance is "weighing heavy on the minds of the family, particularly his parents, and I certainly feel for them and understand their relentless pursuit of answers."
Officers, according to Dobbs, will "continue on with whatever leads come in and whatever information develops from here on out."