On May 15, 2020, a Benton County Sheriff’s Office deputy was dispatched to Stag Drive in Edwards for a missing person. They met Echo Lloyd’s daughter, who said she had not seen her mother in weeks.
After entering Lloyd’s home, Benton County called in the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control to conduct a forensic investigation.
“We discovered she was certainly a missing person because of what we found in the home,” Benton County Sheriff Eric Knox told the Democrat on Tuesday, March 26. “It just brought more questions, and I knew it was going to be a big deal and way more than what my office could handle.”
Even with all departments searching diligently for Lloyd, it’s as if she simply vanished.
“There was no forensic evidence, there's no sign of a struggle, there's no evidence saying that she's deceased, but obviously by now we know she is. So, all we still have is a missing person,” Knox said. “The Missouri State Highway Patrol has the case. As a matter of fact, they don't even talk to me about it, so I haven't really had anything to write about or anything new because, basically, it's gone cold.”
Knox and other sheriff's office employees, the Highway Patrol, area firefighters, water patrol, the Missouri Department of Conservation, and other volunteers conducted a grid search of the heavily wooded areas around Lloyd's home.
“Again, this search produced no answers that would help us to locate Echo or help determine what had happened to her,” Knox said. “I knew our 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.”
Knox said the Highway Patrol has put in thousands of man-hours on the missing person case. Expert cavers were brought in to search the extensive caves in Benton County. All leads from citizens were followed, and every person who had contact with Lloyd was interviewed. The DDCC interviewed every other person of interest that may have related to her in any way.
“They interviewed people whose names came up from those leads and interviews still producing no hard evidence of what happened to Echo,” Knox said.
“Three weeks ago, they came across a lead, and they followed up on it,” Knox said. “They didn't even tell me about it. I found out through the Camden County Sheriff's Office.”
That most recent lead was worked by DDCC involving K9s and a forensic team. Unfortunately, this latest search resulted in no additional information in the Lloyd case.
“It is our heartfelt desire by every member of the BCSO that evidence will come in that will help the DDCC solve this case,” Knox said.
“As time goes by, somebody's going to talk,” Knox predicted. “Somebody's going to slip something, somebody's going to brag, some ex-girlfriend relationship gone bad, somebody's going to say something.”
Knox is asking anyone with information on the missing woman to come forward.
“My door is always open,” Knox said. “Somebody knows something. Please come forward and give Echo's family and loved ones the peace they deserve.”
Anyone with information is encouraged to 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.
Chris Howell can be reached at 660-530-0146.
