Officials: Boat found during search did not belong to missing man

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Park officials at Lake Meredith say the boat found during the search for Ryan Kennedy did not belong to him.

Images from a side scanning sonar unit lead the National Park Service to believe they had located the boat Kennedy went missing in.

Officials were able to pull the motor from the boat out of the water and determine it was not the same as the one on Kennedy’s boat. The boat found at the bottom of the lake was said to have been there for some time now, making it stuck to the floor of the lake and impossible for the the divers to resurface the boat.

The search has been suspended for today but expected to continue with surface searches of the water until another side scanning sonar unit can be brought in to help search farther up the lake.

Kennedy has been missing since Sunday, December 15 when he told his family he shot a deer at Lake Meredith but never returned home.

You can donate to help his family here.

NewsChannel 10 continues to follow this story and will provide updates as they become available.