After being reported missing nearly a month, Wortham resident, Jeffery Allyn Lockhart (pictured below), was found deceased on Saturday, August 8, 2020 off I-45.
A conversation with Wortham Police Department Chief Kelly Butler helped to place a deeper understanding on the circumstances of this tragic death.
Lockhart had stayed the night in jail on a Public Intoxication charge, and after being released he decided to make the walk home.
When he did not arrive home, his girlfriend reported him as missing to the Wortham Police Department.
He was last reported as being seen near the I-45N at the 201 mile marker heading north.
A search started on I-45N from the 206 mile marker heading north to the 211 marker on the east side of the interstate.
This portion of the interstate, near FM 833, is heavily wooded.
The following Saturday his girlfriend arranged another search with volunteers, they also found nothing.
Due to past history, it was believed Lockhart might have checked himself into a rehab program, as he had disappeared before.
After almost a month with no contact from Lockhart, Search Dog Network out of College Station was contacted to use four cadaver dogs in another search.
The area was split into four sections; two in the 206 and 207 mile marker area, and two in the Tehuacana Creek area.
Remi, one of the dogs, located Lockhart, deep in thick foliage off of I45.
Because of how deeply he had crawled into the thick underbrush, the preliminary assessment is that he may have died of heat exhaustion.
His body was sent to Dallas for an autopsy, and if anything is found that would need further investigating, it will be handled by the Freestone County Sheriff’s Office.
