Search for SMU officer's body enters third day

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Searchers returned to Turtle Creek in Dallas for a third day to look for a missing SMU police officer who was swept into the water during a storm.

Dallas Fire Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said divers, game wardens and even mounted patrol officers will again search a 200-yard stretch of the creek to the Trinity River. They now have the added benefit of a lower water level.

“Now that the water level is going down, we’re going back to check some areas more thoroughly,” Evans said.

Officer Mark McCullers was working an off-duty security job at a construction site early Monday morning when the water quickly came up around his car. Grainy surveillance video suggests he may have gotten out of the vehicle just as it washed into the creek near Fitzhugh and St. Johns Drive.

McCullers served in the Marine Corps from 1990-1998. He worked as a private security officer for Mark Cuban’s estate and for a private firm involved with the George W. Bush Library and Museum. He joined the SMU Police Department in February of 2015, according to his LinkedIn page.

He and his wife had six children in their combined family. His brother-in-law said he was a devoted to his family and to his faith in God.

Evans said so far searchers have only found McCullers’ car and additional parts of the car in the water. They haven’t found anything that would give them any idea where his body may be.

They have not decided yet whether they’ll start searching in the Trinity River. For now they’re just hoping the dive team will find something in its more thorough search.