Marcus Booker: Missing
Wichita man found dead
This story first appeared in
the Jan. 23 edition of the Kansan.
A Wichita man who had been
missing since Saturday was found dead Thursday afternoon at an abandoned
farmstead near Hesston.
Marcus Booker, 30, of Wichita
was found in his car by a farmer working his field at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday
in the 9600 block of Mission Road, which is one-half mile north of Dutch
Avenue.
Wichita Police and the Harvey
County Sheriff's Department had been looking for Booker in Harvey County after
his bloody phone was found Monday in a Harvey County field.
The search for Booker of
Wichita began Saturday after his family reported receiving a text message at
1:06 p.m., indicating he might harm himself, according to a Wichita Police
Department press release.
Booker recently had been
struggling with lupus.
A man matching Booker's
description was seen between 12:20 and 2:20 p.m. Saturday at the Kechi Township
Cemetery, 6501 N. Hillside St.
Police located blood at the
site of Booker's mother's grave at the cemetery.
A Harvey County sheriff's
deputy was dispatched Monday to a field at Kansas and 60th streets in Harvey
County after a farmer found a bloody phone, which was later determined to
belong to Booker.
Harvey County Sheriff T.
Walton said deputies and members of Booker's family searched the area but
neither Booker nor his silver Mitsubishi were located.
Jim Sauerwein, senior
investigator with the Harvey County Sheriff's Department, said Booker was dead
when sheriff's officers arrived on the scene Thursday.
He said Booker appeared to
have been deceased for some time when his body was found.
The cause of death has not
been released, pending an autopsy, but Sauerwein said foul play was not
suspected in the case.
Booker is survived by his
wife and two young children of Wichita.
