Former St. Louis County Rescue Captain Locates Body of Missing St. Cloud Student
Tom Crossmon located the body of Jesse Dady in the Mississippi on Friday
DULUTH, Minn. – On March 25th, 21–year–old St. Cloud State student Jesse Dady went missing . Police believe he may have fallen off a railroad bridge over the Mississippi River.
That’s the river where his body was found Friday by retired St. Louis County deputy Tom Crossmon.
While crews in St. Cloud worked tirelessly for a week to locate Dady’s body, it was Crossman who had the tools to find the body in just a matter of hours.
Crossmon spent more than 30 years with the county’s rescue squad, and is now assisting families in need of help. Last week, Dady’s family made the call to Crossmon, who now owns a consulting company doing underwater searches.
Crossmon arrived on the scene in St. Cloud Friday afternoon and just two hours later was able to locate Jesse’s body using special side scan sonar technology. Searches like this one involving young people are the most difficult part of the job, Crossmon says, but being able to provide a small sense of relief to families is always rewarding.
“This case was extremely difficult because of the very cluttered bottom,” said Crossmon. “I wanted to be able to help families with loved ones that are missing and do searches and be able to recover those loved ones.”
After he discovered Jesse’s body, Crossmon says he spoke with the family and they expressed their gratitude and appreciation for his help with the search.
Aside from travel costs, Crossmon does not charge families for his service. The family is collecting donations for Jesse’s funeral and plan to give some of that money to Crossmon as a thank you for his efforts.
