A hiker on the Katy Trail reported seeing what may have been a person in a life vest floating by in the Missouri River south of Rocheport Monday night.

missouririverA 911 call was made to Cooper County around 8:15 Monday night, but Boone County authorities were contacted for the search. The Water Division of the Highway Patrol and Boone County Fire Protection District searched the waters for more than two hours, but suspended the search due to poor river conditions and a storm moving in. Captain John Hotz with the Highway Patrol told Missourinet the river waters are very high and moving swiftly.

“A person can get hung up on a tree or those types of things. There are a lot of challenges there to that, but we do have marine operations troopers who are very experienced in searching those waters,” said Hotz.

He said they take reports seriously and do everything they can to exhaust all possibilities to try and locate a victim.

“We oftentimes have reports from people about some of the things they see in the water, and so we have to do everything we can.”

Missourinet will update this developing story as more information becomes available.