Searchers ‘have saturated the area,’ but Trophy Club dad remains missing

Authorities on Tuesday evening discontinued the search for a missing Trophy Club man shortly before 7 p.m.

Hours earlier they had found Matthew Meinert’s 2-year-old son Oliver in the woods around Denton Creek near Lake Grapevine.

Meinert, 38, launched a fishing boat from a Trophy Club ramp about 5 p.m. Monday, Trophy Club Sgt. Tracey Shields said. About an hour later, the boat was found beached in an “unusual location” on the shore of Denton Creek, just west of U.S. 377, he said.

Brandon Barth, emergency management officer with the Flower Mound Fire Department, said the search would resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

“At this point I think we would have run across him if he was just wondering around in the woods somewhere,” Barth said. “I don’t ever want to say never because stranger things have happened, but we’ve saturated the area.”

Barth said more than 50 people from multiple jurisdictions have participated in this search, which has included at least one helicopter, drones, a K9 team and at least three boats. At one point one boat from Flower Mound authorities and two Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife boats were involved in the rescue effort.

Meinert’s boat contained fishing gear, shoes and a cellphone, officials said. Authorities immediately began searching, suspended the search about 2 a.m., and resumed at 8 a.m., Shields said.

About 8:45 a.m., a game warden and Flower Mound police officer were walking through the woods back to the area where the boat was found when the boy walked right up to them, said Texas Game Warden Cliff Swofford.

“He was dry, scratched-up, scared and cold but he’s fine and we got him reunited with his mother,” Swofford said.

The child was taken to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth as a precaution.

“As to what happened, anything would be just a guess right now. We really don’t know,” Swofford said.

Although winds were high Monday, with gusts up to 41 mph at the nearby Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Swofford said rough water was likely not a factor because the creek is not as choppy as the lake.

The creek in that area is about 5-10 feet deep with lots of hazards, Shields said.

Tarrant and Denton County game wardens were using sonar, boats and a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter, Swofford said.

Crews planned to scale down the search by evening, taking boats off the water but continuing a ground search with K-9 units, according to a police press release.

Agencies assisting in the search include Trophy Club, Lewisville, Flower Mound and Roanoke police, as well as the game warden, Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Secret Service. The Secret Service assisted with accessing data on Matthew Meinert’s cellphone that might identify the boat’s route, Shields said.

This story was originally published March 7, 2017 at 6:53 AM with the headline "Searchers ‘have saturated the area,’ but Trophy Club dad remains missing."