After the disappearance and tragic death of Carl DeBrodie rocked Callaway County, a group of area residents came together to make sure similar stories have a happier ending.
Kimmy Bodle, a local woman who co-organized the volunteer search effort for DeBrodie, is in the process of founding and funding the Missouri Search and Rescue Ground Team (MOSARGT).
"I think it was a sense of camaraderie with a couple of other rescuers like Jeremy Cameron, who's working closely with me," Bodle said. "When you're out in the thick of it and you're using machetes to chop down the forest in front of you, you develop a closeness. At the end, we realized we had to try and help other families."
DeBrodie was reported missing from a Fulton care home April 17 and found dead by police on April 24.
"To this day, I cry over Carl and the fact I couldn't save him," Bodle said. "I thought that it would be one search and then I'd resume life, but it's not been that."
Teaming up with fellow searchers Cameron, Shellea Young and Rebecca Bell, among others, Bodle hopes to create a search team that can coordinate rescue efforts all over the state - and beyond. She said she wants to do it the right way.
"The first day of the search, I was carrying my daughter and wearing flip-flops," she said. "I went into it with a big heart and good intentions, but I think that I was very naive about how it would affect me emotionally."
The team will be pursuing SARTECH (search and rescue technician) certification through the National Association of Search and Rescue. Additionally, they'll learn how to use Geospatial Information Infrastructure, a mapping program. Bodle plans to study lost-person behavior.
That need for training is why the newly founded team hasn't gone on any searches yet, she added.
"I don't want to send us out there without the proper training," Bodle said.
"While we went into this with really good intentions, I see the liability this could've been on the (searchers).