According to the Grant County Sheriff’s Department, Deputy Keith Wright’s body was found on Friday, August 23 around 7 p.m.
On July 19, Deputy Keith Wright dove off a party barge with his friend near a cove just north of Mountain Harbor Resort. When they came up for air, the boat was drifting away from them.
As both men were swimming toward the boat, Wright’s friend lost contact with him.
The boat was later found at the back of a cove with the engine still running and the gear shift in neutral, but Wright was not found.
Several agencies including the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Arkansas Game & Fish, Arkansas Army Corps of Engineers, Benton County Search and Rescue Team, Pope County Office of Emergency Management and the Joplin and Mt. Ida-South Fork volunteer fire departments all jumped in to help.
An extensive search was conducted for five days. The search was scaled back but continued daily.
On Friday around 7 p.m., the Joplin Fire Department recovered a body in the area that Wright had gone missing.
The body was positively identified as Keith Wright.
Per the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department policy, his body was taken to the Arkansas State Crime Lab.
