The remains of Rodney Cherry, the Magnolia man reported missing last November, may have been found within a few miles of his last known whereabouts. The 51-year-old was last seen by a home security camera at his County Road 511 residence on Nov. 11, 2017, dressed in full hunting gear and without a wallet or cellular phone.
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Department (CCSO) was first made aware of the discovery at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning after skeletal remains were found in a wooded area just off County Road 68 (Cowboy Road).
“Items found at the scene indicate that the skeletal remains may belong to Rodney Cherry who went missing in November 2017,” read a CCSO statement, “but DNA analysis is required to verify the identity of the remains.”
The Magnolia Police Department is also assisting in the matter, according to the statement.
On Tuesday afternoon, more than a half dozen patrol vehicles and numerous law enforcement officials gathered near the remains site along Cowboy Road. The site is roughly 1.5 miles from the dirt roadway’s intersection with County Road 47 (Dudney Road).
Although on-scene investigators were tight-lipped about the findings, the area is just 3 miles from Cherry’s home and sits in the heart of the area that saw a large-scale local and state manhunt performed in the days and weeks following Cherry’s disappearance. On-foot grid searches, aerial visual searches by drone and helicopter, and dog searches were all part of the efforts to find Cherry.
Law enforcement officials and canine teams in November did track Cherry’s scent to the intersection of Cowboy and Dudney Road — roughly 1.25 miles from south of Logoly State Park — but the trail then went cold. The area is filled for miles with rural hunting and farmlands and densely wooded thickets on each side of the road, making search efforts difficult.
The search for Cherry was suspended after Columbia County Sheriff Mike Loe and Cherry’s spouse, Demetris, on Nov. 20, 2017, held a joint press conference to announce details on the case and to plead for any help on the man’s whereabouts.
“At this point, we have done all that we know to do,” said Loe during that gathering.
Although Cherry left notes addressed to his family before disappearing, the family indicated at the same press conference the writings held no clues as to why he left.
“They were just letters telling us he loved us,” Demetris said in November.
“The note was very vague,” added Loe. “He did not specifically indicate anything that he was going to do.”
The case was never officially closed and, with Tuesday’s new revelations, the months-long missing person case could finally be resolved.
According to a 2010 federal government-sponsored medical research and evidence study, Arkansas DNA results for state cases average 21-46 days turnaround time for “rushed” results and 142-180 days for regular results.