ST. TAMMANY – Almost a dozen trucks and deputies lined a large lake on Tuesday as a boat with sonar searched beneath the surface for two missing friends.
Those two friends are 20-year-old Raegan Day and Dustin Hartline. The search is something loved ones say has exceeded their expectations, including St. Tammany Sheriff Randy Smith’s personal interest in the case.
“They're just doing too much to try to find them and I'm not going to get in their way,” Russell Hartline, Dustin Hartline’s father, said.
The area around Eagle Lake Boulevard off of Highway 11 between Slidell and Pearl River is the target, as cell phone evidence indicates this was the last area Day and Hartline were in. The friends were last seen Thursday around 12:30 p.m. in Day’s 2011 dark blue Camaro, headed first to Kenner to see relatives, then to Baton Rouge for a medical appointment.
However, the never arrived.
“We're just hearing so many different things. So many different scenarios,” Russell Hartline said.
Friends and loved ones are doing their part too, coming area neighborhoods and posting flyers. Hartline’s dad has even turned over his cell phone to authorities since his son frequently used it.
“There are things that me and family members and friends are actively doing, places that we're looking. We're just trying to find out any information that we think could help the police,” Russell Hartline said.
His family is pleading with the public to do the same with the hopes it results in the safe return of two people terribly missed.
Anyone with information that can help locate Raegan and Dustin can call the detective on the case directly at 985-726-7848.