Volunteers aid search for missing man

Wayne Lythgoe isn’t shocked by dead bodies. The 72-year-old is hardened after nine years of volunteering in the seniors program with the Spokane Police Department.

Lythgoe and 68-year-old Phil Edminster were among 18 volunteers who helped police detectives in a four-day search of 168 bridges for James Ehrgott’s body.

John Wayne Thomson told California law enforcement officials he shot and killed Erghott near a bridge and left the body in some tall grass.

The killing suspect described the concrete bridge as three or four car-lengths long with a pullout on one side, just off a two-lane road, said Spokane police Sgt. Joe Peterson. Out of 219 bridges in Spokane County, 168 fit the description.

“We don’t need a body to charge the guy with murder,” Peterson said.

“We know who did it. I’m interested in finding the body for the family.”

Thomson has already been charged with murder in the deaths of a Washington woman and a California man.

On Tuesday, Lythgoe and Edminster navigated their way through grass reaching as high as 7 feet to look for Ehrgott.

“The grass out there was so tall, you’d have to stumble over him to find him,” Lythgoe said. “It was tough grass. It was sturdy stuff.”

At this point, detectives think Ehrgott’s body is badly decomposed because it has been outdoors for more than a month, exposed to 100-degree plus temperatures, Peterson said.

Predators also may have gotten to it. A mummified portion of a body or bones are what the detective was hoping to find during the four-day search.

Edminster said all they found were hypodermic needles, beer cans, clothes and food wrappers, but they were prepared for the most gruesome of possibilities and were hopeful they’d find Ehrgott.

“We do a lot of this type of stuff, search for missing people and bodies,” Lythgoe said of his volunteering with the police.

“I’ve seen two people jump off buildings and splat on the street. I’ve seen some overdose and die on the spot, so finding someone out in the woods isn’t going to bother me any.”

Edminster has only volunteered with Spokane police for two years, but he says he’s not squeamish either.

“I was a police officer many, many years ago,” said Edminster, who was an officer in Wisconsin, “before there were shoulder patches or marijuana.”

When the four-day search of 168 concrete bridges didn’t result in locating Ehrgott’s body, police sent a request to counties outside Spokane County and in Idaho to be on the lookout.

“We want closure on this whole thing,” Edminster said.