Officials Find Body Of Missing Woman

FARMINGTON — A body believed to be that of a missing Washington County woman was found in her vehicle in a heavily wooded area near her property in rural western Washington County, according to Capt. Dallas McClellan with the Washington County Sheriff ’s Office.

McClellan said investigators do not suspect any foul play was involved. The body has been sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for positive identification and cause of death.

“There was nothing at the scene that raised our suspicion,” McClellan said.

Dana May- Mogg, 51, was reported missing by her husband, John May, on May 21 when he could not reach her by cellphone

the night before. May-Mogg was last seen between 4-4:30 p. m., May 20, after leaving her job at the Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville. She was last seen driving her vehicle, a 2007 white Toyota Corolla. She lived in a rural area near Prairie Grove.

According to a news release issued June 26, the investigation to find May-Mogg included aerial and vehicle searches. Detectives analyzed telephone, credit and bank records but were not able to come up with any leads to help in the search. McClellan said the sheriff’s office did not find any activity on the victim’s bank or credit card records and that her cell phone had quit working three days after she was reported missing.

McClellan said investi- gators conducted another search around May-Mogg’s property the morning of June 26, based on a recent analysis of additional cell phone information. He pointed out that even though a cell phone is not on, it still “talks” to a cell tower, providing data about the phone’s location. He said it took about three days to analyze the latest data and by putting a “dot” here and a “dot” there on a map, the information led officers to search again near May-Mogg’s property.

Officers on all- terrain vehicles found a small trail that McClellan described as a “rabbit trail.” He said the trail would have been passable with a car but from the road the trail could not be seen because it was all grown up. Within 30 minutes, they found May-Mogg’s vehicle. It had not been wrecked and it appeared the vehicle had been out there for “some time,” McClellan said. It was found near Buckhorn Camp Road.

“We had driven everything you could drive,” McClellan said. “We’ve flown over but flying this time of year it’s hard to see anything because of the canopy.”

A female body was found in the vehicle and McClellan said that in all likelihood, it was May-Mogg’s body.

“It’s a tragedy anytime you find something like that,” McClellan said. “The detective (who was investigating) had never stopped working on it.”

Libby Wright worked with May-Mogg at Washington Regional Medical Center on and off for about 20 years and said May-Mogg was a really nice person, just a “great nurse.”

Wright said she helped with the search to find May-Mogg by handing out flyers and posting flyers throughout northwest Arkansas.

She said she probably was not surprised by the news last week because May-Mogg had been missing five weeks.

“I was hoping they wouldn’t find her like that,” Wright said. “We all wanted to do more but what can you do.”

The Veterans Healthcare System issued this statement: “We consider all our staff to be part of our work family and her loss is and will continue to be a void for all of us. Our prayers and thoughts are with her friends and family at this time,” said Wanda Shull, public affairs officer.

Shull said May-Mogg was a registered nurse in the emergency department and had worked for Veterans since May 26, 2009.

May-Mogg