The Highway Patrol has confirmed a body was pulled from the Missouri River Tuesday. The description matched that of a person reported to have been seen in the river Monday night wearing a life vest and floating south of Rocheport, but investigators say the male body is too decomposed to provide an identity. The person was pulled from the water near the Noren access in Jefferson City.

missouririverThe Highway Patrol along with the Boone County Fire Protection District led the search. After 2 1/2 hours Monday evening, authorities had to suspend the search due to poor river conditions and an incoming storm. Searchers resumed the effort Tuesday.   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.

A hiker on the Katy Trail reported the incident Monday evening.