Air search fails to locate DJ's car
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

The continuing search for the missing vehicle owned by Bobby Jones and believed to be at the bottom of the Colorado River took to the air on Thursday.

During Thursday night's 100 Club Banquet, Wharton County Sheriff Jess Howell offered an update on the search for Jones' vehicle.

He said that Lower Colorado River Authority Ranger Brian Peoples did an aerial helicopter search of the river from Bay City to the Colorado River Bridge in Wharton.

"He flew the river, but didn't find anything," Howell said. "We're continuing to work on it and will do what is necessary to find the vehicle if it is in the river.

"This has been hard on everyone and we're hoping to get closure for Jones' family and friends."

The aerial search came on the heels of an intensive sonar search done last week by the Houston Police Department and Harris County Sheriff's Office.

"Those departments have some very sophisticated equipment and did a side-by-side search of the river from the bridge to the Lane City dam and found nothing," Howell said.

"But we are going to continue to do visual searches until we have exhausted all possible means of locating the car."

According to sheriff's office and Wharton Police Department reports, tire tracks were found leading into the river near the bridge on June 23, the same weekend the radio dee-jay and polka music performer was reported missing.

After finding a license plate from Jones' vehicle stuck in a sapling near the tire tracks June 28, investigators began considering the car was submerged in the river.

The search for the vehicle has been hampered this summer due to heavy rains in the river basin area that resulted in higher than usual river levels and flow rates.