Search Continues for Canoeist

Officers with the Missouri Highway Patrol Water Patrol Division will resume their search today for a man missing after his canoe was found capsized on the Niangua River on Sunday.

54-year old Tim Stapleton was in the canoe with an unidentified female friend when it tipped over, the woman clung to a tree in the river and was rescued, but Stapleton was last seen drifting down the river. Two boats will be working the scene close to the Mountain Creek Campground near the Prosperine Access near Eldridge in Laclede County.

Sergeant Mike McClure with the water patrol division said it is still unclear whether Stapleton drowned or has escaped from the river and is lost in the heavily wooded rural area around the Niangua.