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Husband, wife help others find loved ones, closure

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RGecy:
Husband, wife help others find loved ones, closure

Couple’s love of fishing leads to new mission: Training law-enforcement officials on the use of sonar gear and assisting in water searches

By Erika Slife
January 10, 2008

Since they began traveling the country to aid law enforcement with water searches for missing people, Dennis and Tammy Watters have learned how to deal with the reality that for each body they’ve recovered, another remains missing.

Don’t get too close to the families.

“Because if you don’t find them, it’s easier to walk away,” Tammy Watters said.

In their quest to find Stacy Peterson, the missing 23-year-old wife of a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, they broke their own rule. During a month plying the cold, murky waters of the southwest suburbs, the Watterses got to know her family and friends, and so it was hard for them to say goodbye with no resolution to the case. “We wanted to find her to give that family closure so they can move on,” Tammy Watters said. “We were out on Thanksgiving searching when no one was.”

And they stand ready to return to Will County if needed. The Watterses, armed with their own sophisticated sonar equipment, said they have helped authorities recover eight bodies in less than three years.

The Downstate couple’s unusual journey began in 2005 when, as competitive anglers, they were testing new fishing equipment on the Mississippi River, and a grainy picture of a car appeared on the boat’s sonar screen. Incredulous, they went to police, wondering if they had found the car of missing teacher Wilma Bricker, who was known to have driven into the river in March 2002.

View the entire article at ChicagoTribune.com

Also visit TeamWattersSonar.com

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