Two specialized teams are at the center of efforts to locate the body of 31-year-old Michael J. Meadows - Missoula County Search and Rescue and the Flathead County Sheriff's Dive Rescue Team. Both teams will likely expand the area of their search downstream by next weekend, as more resources become available, said R.J. Nelsen, chief of Missoula's rescue team.
“We want to see this to conclusion,” Nelsen said. “We'll start where we left off and work downriver from there.”
“We are 90 percent confident that, had what we'd been looking for been in the area where we were looking, we would have found it,” Nelsen said. “The only way to be 100 percent confident is to drain the water.”
Meadows, 31, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., was apparently stabbed to death early last Thursday morning. Cyril K. Richard, 22, has been charged with deliberate homicide and evidence tampering in the slaying. Richard told police he was acting in self-defense when he stabbed Meadows inside his apartment at the Copper Run complex, located off Mullan Road on Great Northern Avenue.
Richard said he wrapped the body in a blanket, dragged it down two flights of stairs and loaded it into the hatchback of his Subaru Outback, according to an affidavit. He then drove to one of the Triple Bridges over the Clark Fork River and pushed the body over the side. Detectives later found traces of blood on the edge of the bridge, which rises 110 feet above the water.
Richard and the alleged victim were friends from Wyoming, he told police, and Meadows had been living in Richard's Missoula apartment for the past several weeks while he looked for a job. The men had been drinking heavily the night of Feb. 20, according to Richard, and they began arguing about Meadows' inability to find a job and help pay for rent.
Richard said Meadows lunged at him with a pocket knife, but that he was able to wrest the knife away from his friend, according to the affidavit. Meadows again lunged at him, this time while unarmed, and Richard stabbed him in the abdomen in self-defense, he told police.
“We would like nothing more than to complete this mission and bring some closure for the family members of this person,” Nelsen said. “But we also have to be realistic. We are going to continue our efforts, but we just want to make sure that the conditions are safe and that we have the resources.”
Nelsen said crews were diving in maximum depths of about 24 feet, with a subsurface visibility of about 3 to 5 feet.
Because water temperatures are in the low 30s, the river is not surging and conditions are not changing dramatically. The stretch of river is flowing at just below 2,000 cubic feet per second, a rate that increases to around 24,000 cubic feet per second in the spring.
“Given the water temperatures, we are fairly confident that our search area is not going to change dramatically,” Nelsen said. “Essentially, we don't believe the conditions will move him between now and next weekend.”
Missoula Police Sgt. Scott Hoffman said investigators are still working to piece together a chronology of the tragic evening. Police are pulling surveillance footage from businesses that Richard and Meadows may have patronized, including a local bowling alley.
Hoffman said a complete investigation is of secondary importance.
“Our main priority at this point is to help the victim's family find some sort of closure,” Hoffman said.
Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com.
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