After seven years of waiting on the police to find her son’s remains, a determined Missouri mom decided she had waited long enough. Taking things into her own hands, the mom drained a pond, looking for her son’s remains.
Why the Missouri Mom Drained a Pond
In 2015, Mark Dobbs, the Butler County sheriff confirmed that Edward Goodwin of Missouri was murdered at age 32 by two friends, Rickey Hurt and Eldrid Smith.
Dobbs told reporters of the incident, “Apparently, there was a grudge over past drug transactions between Ed Goodwin and the group who eventually assaulted him.”
While Edward’s mother, Connie Goodwin, 57 understood her son had been mixed up in some illegal dealings, she still grieved the loss of her son and always longed to be able to lay him to rest.
Connie told local news that Edward was “a hard worker who made some bad choices but was a good person.”
Edward left behind a son, Gage, and Connie hoped to give him some closure, as well.
So when the Missouri mom learned that Edward’s body had been dumped by his friends into a pond in the same county, she hoped his body would be found.
And in 2017, the Butler County Sheriff’s Department drained a pond in Poplar Bluff. That is, part of the pond.
“They drained it down to where it was just within a few feet of being completely drained, but you have all the sediment, all the mud,” the Butler County Coroner, Jim Akers, told reporters.
Thankfully, they found Edward’s pelvis and femurs, and used these to convict Hurt and Smith, who are now in prison for Edward Goodwin’s murder.
Unfortunately for Connie and Gage, the police stopped there. According to Connie, the police department committed to draining the entire pond so the Missouri mom could recover her son’s whole body. But in the five years since they began the draining, additional efforts to drain it further weren’t made until 2021.
The desperate mom explained, “They promised they were going to go back, even in the newspaper they said they were going to go back, but they never did.”
“I called them about every other day trying to find out when they were going to do it,” Connie told People about her relentless efforts at trying to get the police to continue.
Explaining why the police department said they were putting off the remainder of the draining, the Missouri mom said, “”There was always a reason. Either because of other crimes going on or the weather.”
The Poplar Bluff pond, which is about 90 feet by 140 feet was drained some more, but no additional remains were found.
Determined to find the rest of her son’s remains and with no hope that the police would continue work on the pond, in the fall of 2022, the Missouri mom enlisted her grandson and Edward’s son to help her. Together the two used a sump pump and drained a pond enough to recover the rest of Edward’s remains.
Understandably, many news networks picked up the story, making it viral. From the Daily Beast to People, the determined mom became known across the country.
Wondering what happened when she used the sump pump? Read on.
