Charles Rickey (36), missing since Super Bowl Sunday, is being searched by helicopter

[Gary Dee]

INDIANAPOLIS - Police took their search to the air Tuesday in their effort to find a missing Carmel man. Thirty-six-year-old Charles Rickey has been missing since Super Bowl Sunday, more than a month.



"We just don't know if he's still out there or if he is dead. We don't know," said Charles' mother Marilyn Rickey.

Carmel police used a helicopter Tuesday to look for answers. Rickey was last seen the night of Feb. 4 at the Moon Dog Tavern in Carmel. His wrecked truck was found later that night, but Rickey was not in it. Police took pictures from the air in the area around 116th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway, where Rickey's truck had crashed.

"If he was out here he was overcome by the temperatures so we're just now looking to see if his body is out here," said Major Luckie Carey of Carmel Police Department.

Carmel police are getting some high-tech help. An aerial photographer will use a computer to highlight certain images on the ground. If Rickey is there, that highlighting may help detect him.

"He left the bar over here wearing blue jeans and a Bears sweatshirt and he had a blue jean jacket as well, so if we can take those files and take everything that he was wearing in blue and turn those colors to red, we have a better likelihood of finding him," said Sean Henady of Aerial Image Incorporated.

The search for answers in Carmel continues. It is a search that could bring some peace of mind to Charlie and Marilyn Rickey.

"I mean it's been over a month and there's just no closure," Marilyn said.

The Rickeys helped with a search Sunday that led to the discovery of the body of another person who has been missing in Carmel, Valerie Lynn Vickery-West.

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Carmel police say they have been out searching for Charles Rickey five or six times. If you have any information that could help them please contact them.

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6222070

[Gary Dee]

Body discovered in Carmel gravel pit

Carmel police are reporting the discovery of a body in a Martin Marietta Materials gravel pit near the 4700 block of 96th Street.

Lt. Jeff Horner said authorities are in the process of removing the body of an unidentified man.



There was no immediate determination that the body may be that of Chuck Rickey, a Noblesville resident who has been missing from the area since Feb. 4, when he crashed his pickup truck during freezing weather and appeared to have taken off on foot.

Friends and family had told police that Rickey had been at a nearby bar watching the Super Bowl and had left the bar when the accident occurred.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...3/1015/LOCAL01

[Gary Dee]

Exposure likely killed missing man


After aerial photography and a computerized photo imaging system helped them find the body of Chuck Rickey, police today said an autopsy helped them determine he died accidentally, likely from exposure after falling into a quarry.


"The family, at this point, is trying to recover from what's been a very stressful period of time," family spokesman David Rohlwing said of Rickey's parents and other relatives who agonized for more than five weeks over his disappearance after he wrecked his truck in Carmel on Super Bowl Sunday.

"They've had to deal with the day-to-day not knowing. At this point . . . they can work on the closure."

Rohlwing, a 30-year friend of the Rickey family whose son grew up with Chuck Rickey, 36, appeared with Carmel police officials this morning at a news conference held to announce the preliminary autopsy results and to offer thanks for the community support and prayers throughout the ordeal.

"This is not what we had hoped for," said Rohlwing. "Our hope was that he would come back to us alive. But now that we know he is gone, we can move on . . . "

Although toxicology results are pending, in part to learn if Rickey was intoxicated at the time of his wreck near 116th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway, Carmel Police Chief Michael Fogarty said the autopsy findings and news conference today mark an end to the difficult case.

Fogarty and Maj. Luckie Carey said a break in the efforts by police and volunteers to locate Rickey came Tuesday when an aerial survey of the area south of the crash site -- focusing on the Martin Marietta Materials quarry in particular -- revealed the form of a human figure lying on the bottom of the pit.

Carey said the discovery Wednesday was made by a company representative of Aerial Imaging, who was able to zoom in on a photographed site and transform colors of photo images to help spot shapes that might be a body.

In final photos of the process, Rickey's body is clearly visible at the foot of a ravine, nearly 30 feet below a quarry pathway.

"His technology is what really led us in the discovery of Chuck's body yesterday," said Carey, who had organized police efforts and assisted with volunteer searches complicated by a blizzard and several inches of snowfall.

He said dogs had picked up a scent on two occasions, leading police to believe that Rickey had headed south after his truck overturned and then west to Old River Road before heading south again. Both times, however, the dogs lost the scent.

If he had continued heading south, Assistant Chief Tim Green said, Rickey would have entered the wooded area leading to the quarry, which is across the street from the tavern where he’d been drinking with friends.

The discovery Wednesday fueled suspicions that Rickey had fallen into the quarry after turning off his truck, grabbing his keys, losing his cell phone and wandering from the crash site.

Investigators speculated that Rickey fell into the quarry while trying to get back to the Moon Dog Tavern on 96th Street to get a ride.

He had been at the pub watching the Super Bowl just before crash, which occurred when he apparently lost control while heading out to see a friend. The truck flipped several times, and the accident could have been to blame for bruising detected in the autopsy.

Carey said the bruising also could have come from the fall, but added that Rickey was not dead after landing in the ravine.

"That would not have caused his death, according to the pathologist," he said.

A funeral will be held on Saturday at St. Louis de Montfort Catholic Church in Fishers.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...548/-1/ZONES04

Family thanks police, community for finding man’s body

The family of Charles “Chuck” Rickey publicly expressed their thanks Thursday to the media, the community and the agencies involved, including the Carmel Police Department, for their efforts in locating his body.

Rickey, 36, of Lawrence went missing after leaving a Super Bowl party at the Moon Dog Tavern at 96th and Gray Road Feb. 4.

Searchers found his body Wednesday. He had fallen into a ravine in the Martin Marietta quarry near 96th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway.

Rickey’s parents asked family friend David Rohlwing to express their gratitude in the case, in which several teams searched the area on foot and by air.

“The family, at this point, is trying to recover from what’s been a very stressful period of time,” he said. “They’ve had to deal with the day-to-day not knowing. At this point they’ve been able to find a moment that they can stop, and they can work on closure to this situation.”

Rohlwing had high praise for police, especially the Carmel Police Department, who he said took the lead in the case and worked diligently every day to follow leads.

He said the family’s strong faith has helped get them through the ordeal.

“They’ve been leaning on that for all these weeks and looking to their faith, to God, for strength every day, and they’ve coped with it,” he said. “Everyday they get up with new hope, and have done what they had to do to get through the day and find Charlie.”

Carmel Police Maj. Luckie Carey said snow had been the major factor hindering the search and recovery of Rickey’s body. Bone-chilling temperatures combined with a blizzard which blanketed the area made aerial and ground searches all but impossible. Dogs had found a scent track twice but lost it both times.

But Wednesday, searchers went back into the air, in an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department chopper, with a photographer from Aerial Imaging of West Lafayette on board to shoot pictures of the area.
This time, with the snows abated, technology did in less than 24 hours what teams braving the elements could not for weeks.

More than 450 photos of the area were made and digitally-enhanced to shift the color blue in the pictures and show it as red. That allowed investigators to spot Rickey’s blue jacket and blue jeans, Carey said.

It took 45 minutes to fly over the area, which happened at 11 a.m. By reviewing the pictures the body was located about 1 p.m. and recovered a scant half-hour later.

“The family has given their permission to show those (photos), because I want everyone to know – other police agencies – that this technology assisted us in finding Chuck’s body,” Carey said.

Rickey’s body was found about a mile from where he crashed his pickup truck. He had turned the emergency flashers on and removed the keys from the vehicle. Police believe he may have attempted to walk back to the Moon Dog Tavern to find a ride home after the accident.

“We know we had search parties in the area, and lots of different officers that walked through there, but due to the snow we were not able to locate him,” Carey said.

An autopsy revealed a few bumps and bruises on Rickey’s body, which Carey said could have been caused when he wrecked his truck, which rolled multiple times. Toxicology reports will not be available for another two to three weeks. However, Carey said the cause of death has been ruled as an accidental death due to exposure. It is possible, he said, that Rickey lost consciousness when he fell into the ravine.

A funeral service for Rickey is planned for Saturday morning at St. Louis de Montfort Catholic Church in Fishers.

http://www.county29.net/cms2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1814&Ite mid=1