Officials Search Texas Bay for Missing Soldier *found deceased*

[Sister Iroz]

McALLEN, Texas — Searchers continued combing a South Texas bay Sunday for a soldier who authorities believe drove his car off the end of a pier the day after Christmas.

Pfc. Jamie Wagner Sengvanhpheng, 21, was home on leave from Fort Bragg, N.C. and visiting family in Rockport when he disappeared after hanging out with friends at a bar late Christmas night.

His 2004 Acura was found submerged in Copano Bay Friday, but Sengvanhpheng was not inside.

A body had not been recovered so the search continued, a dispatcher with the Aransas County Sheriff's Office said Sunday.

Older brother James Sengvanhpheng said there were no developments and declined to say more while his brother remained missing.

Authorities first got the call about someone driving on the pier around 1:50 a.m. Friday. At daybreak they found the car in the bay and saw it was registered to Sengvanhpheng. Investigators do not believe anyone else was in the car when it entered the bay, which is about 30 miles north of Corpus Christi.

Jamie Sengvanhpheng's girlfriend, Morgan Hedgcoth, said late Saturday that things seemed normal when she saw him in the early hours of Christmas Day.

Hedgcoth said Sengvanhpheng had recently talked expectantly about getting a scholarship to start college, though he had never complained to her about his time in the Army. Family members told her divers found the driver's side window down in the car, giving her hope that he may have escaped, Hedgcoth said.

"I don't know why he would do this when so many good things were coming his way," she said.

Sengvanhpheng had planned to stay home until mid-January, Hedgcoth said. The soldier had just transferred from the 20th Engineer Brigade to the Warrior Transition Battalion, said Sgt. Jessica Fimbres, a post spokeswoman. The battalion is usually for soldiers preparing to leave the military for medical or other reasons, though sometimes it's a holding area while waiting for the Army Medical Board to decide if they can stay in, Fimbres said. She didn't know details about Sengvanhpheng's particular situation.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,473441,00.html

[Alf]

http://www.rockportpilot.com/articles/2009/01/07/news/news01.txt


Victim's body washes ashore after 8 days

Published:
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 1:54 PM CST
The body of Jamie Wagner Sengvanhpheng, 21, was discovered about 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 3 along the Copano Bay shoreline, about 200 yards east of Newcomb Bend.

Aransas County Sheriff Bill Mills said the owners of the property, who had been fishing in the area, discovered the body.

Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Pat Daly declared Sengvanhpheng dead a short time later, after family members identified the 2007 Rockport-Fulton High School graduate's body. The cause of death was blunt force trauma, with drowning an underlying factor, according to Daly.

The area where Sengvanhpheng's body was discovered is roughly two miles from the Copano Bay fishing pier. Sengvanhpheng drove his 2004 Acura off the north end of that pier eight days earlier, shortly before 2 a.m. Friday, Dec. 26.

Sengvanhpheng was at a Fulton Beach Road bar that evening with his brother, and friends, but left alone and was traveling at a high rate of speed. It has been determined Sengvanhpheng was not involved in a fight which occurred at the bar shortly before a call was made to dispatchers reporting a reckless driver on the pier.

Mills said, “Our investigation is done. We haven't found anything to lead us to believe there was any criminal wrongdoing.”

Mills said his department's investigation into Sengvanhpheng's death found his presence at the bar had nothing to do with his driving off the pier.

A barge was being readied to remove the Acura from Copano Bay, but that operation was called off, first, due to inclement weather, and then, by the discovery of Sengvanhpheng's body.

Mills said he made the call to raise the vehicle because, at the time, a week had passed, and Sengvanhpheng's body had not been recovered.

“I wanted to raise it just in case we missed something,” said Mills.

Since the case is now closed, Mills said the vehicle will not be removed.

“The Coast Guard has determined it is not a problem for navigation,” said Mills.

[Rockin Ma]

Oh Geez, what a dummy. That article was from 08/09