NEW ORLEANS- UPDATE - Monday Noon - The volunteer dive team, EquuSearch, has begun looking in the Mississippi River for the body of Jim Dugan, missing since last week. Ultrasound equipment is being used in the search. EquuSearch is the same group that helped find the body of the brother of NFL Star Ed Reed earlier this year.
A dilapidated pier on the Mississippi River evokes mixed emotions for friends and family of 42-year-old Jim Dugan. He's been missing since early Tuesday morning.
Family members say Dugan had been out drinking with friends in the Bywater before walking to the pier at Alvars and Chartres Streets with a friend. Apparently, the pier collapsed beneath them, sending them both into the water. While the young lady Dugan was with was able to swim ashore, no one knows what happened to Dugan.
"Obviously I hope to have my son back, well and alive," said Dugan's mother, Eleanor. "But it's been too many days."
Dugan's companion apparently found herself in a wooded area nearby, and, lost and confused, assumed Dugan had been able to escape. It wasn't until Wednesday afternoon, 36 hours later, that she reported him missing to police.
"His dog was left here by itself for 36 hours, and there's no way he'd leave his dog," said Dugan's younger brother, Bill.
Now, "missing" posters plaster the New York native's Bywater neighborhood. And in the midst of it all, Dugan's family says, an added stress has been the police response.
"Everyone knows where he was last. In the water, right at the edge of the Alvar Street pier. Nobody's gone in the water there to see," said Dugan.
That's because the NOPD, like other area law enforcement agencies, doesn't have a diver qualified to go into the notoriously dangerous Mississippi River. Dep. Supt. Marlon Defillo said the training and equipment to do so are too expensive, adding that the Harbor Police scanned the area with two boats, but found nothing. The NOPD said Harbor Police contract with a local dive team when needed, but that was not done in this case.
But, nearly a week after Dugan was last seen, the NOPD called in a volunteer dive team from Texas, who will begin combing the river Monday morning.
"It's beyond my comprehension. They've got to go to Texas to get a search and rescue? We've got them in New York. Why doesn't New Orleans have one?" said Dugan's mother.
In a statement, Defillo said, "This is a very unfortunate and tragic incident, and the NOPD will provide any and all resources available to assist the family. However, given the difficulties in searching the Mississippi River, we believe that the best resource at this time is the Texas Equusearch team."
But Dugan's family said the NOPD has been giving them the runaround from the get-go.
"This has been my biggest problem all those days, is, I had this feeling that nobody was paying any attention to this. 'Hey it's just some guy, what the heck.' It's a human being, he's my son, he's a father," said Dugan's mother.
Now, Dugan's friends and family hope they can finally gain some peace of mind.
"Hopefully they can find my brother," said Bill Dugan.
Dugan has a seven-year-old daughter and worked as a waiter at Maison Dupuy. His family describes him as a "fun guy" and a "free-spirit."
Dugan was last seen wearing a white short sleeve button-down shirt with pink pinstripes and blue jeans. His family describes him as 6'1' tall with a slender build. He has celtic tattoos on both his right and left arm and a tattoo that says, "We the People" on his stomach. He also has a multi-colored celtic bird on his back that spans from shoulder to shoulder.
A facebook group has been dedicated to the search. You can view it at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_150175915046261.
