Hello Benton County, I want to talk about Echo Lloyd. This is a case that has never left our thoughts here in the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. It is easy for people to get busy in the day-to-day grind of life. Memories dim, but not for us, and not for the members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control (DDCC) who took over the case shortly after it came to us.
For anyone unfamiliar with the case, on May 15th of 2020 at 11:37 am, a report came in of a possible missing person. A deputy was dispatched to Stag Drive in Edwards Missouri where they met up with the daughter of Echo Lloyd who stated she had not seen her mother in two weeks.
After gaining access to Echo’s home, we called in the DDCC to conduct a forensic inspection which resulted in no factual evidence, or any information which would be helpful in locating Echo. The scene, however, raised more questions than we had answers for. We conducted a grid search of the area surrounding Echo’s home which involved Sheriff’s Offices employees, including myself, the Highway Patrol, all the area fire fighters, water patrol, the conservation department and other volunteers. Again, this search produced no answers that would help us to locate Echo or help determine what had happened to her. At that time, I knew our little office did not have the resources necessary to give this case what it was going to need, so the case was turned completely over to the DDCC.
The members of the DDCC have put in thousands of manhours on this case. They brought in expert cavers who worked the extensive cave system that exists here in Benton County. They followed leads that came in from citizens and interviewed every person that had contact with Echo as well as every other person of interest that may have been connected to her in any way. They interviewed people whose names came up from those leads and interviews as well, still producing no hard evidence of what had happened to Echo.
The DDCC is still actively investigating tips and leads that come in. Three weeks ago, the Camden County Sheriff’s Office had a lead that was worked by DDCC which involved K9s and a forensic team, but unfortunately resulted in no connecting information in Echo’s case. All leads, no matter how miniscule or vague, are followed up by the DDCC.
Leads that are called into the Benton County Central Dispatch or the Benton County Sheriff’s Office are forwarded immediately to DDCC for action. It is the heartfelt desire by every member of the BCSO that evidence will come in that will help the DDCC solve this case. If you have any information, no matter how insignificant you may think it is, please contact the Missouri State Highway Patrol at 573-751-3452, the Missing Persons Clearinghouse at 866-362-6422 or Benton County Central Dispatch at 660-438-9555. And as always, my door is always open. Somebody knows something, please come forward and give Echo’s family and loved ones the peace they deserve.
Sheriff Knox
