Logan Emergency Ambulance Service Director Roger Bryant said he’s not giving up hope in finding Timothy Downard.

Downard’s wife, Beverly, has called for help from other areas to come into Logan County to join the search for her husband, who’s been missing since New Year’s Eve, when he left a message stating he’d been severely injured and was going to die.

Since that call, crews have searched the Guyandotte River and its banks.

Crews from Boone County and Cabell County came into Chapmanville near the Best Western Inn and searched high and low for Downard’s body.

Downard’s cell phone and a bottle of medicine with his name on it was found on the river bank near the Best Western, where he was staying while he worked as a contractor for Aracoma Coal.

Since then, no other clues into his disappearance have surfaced. Neither has a body.

“He should have floated by now,” Bryant said. “We’ve worked the river down to the Ranger Bridge and we haven’t found a body. I feel confident that we’ve conducted pretty thorough searches and worked the river and we haven’t found any additional clues since the first day we worked on this.”

Bryant said despite Beverly Downard’s claims that she’s not been able to get any information from the rescue crews, his agency has kept in constant contact with her.

“We’ve talked to her every day that we’ve been out,” Bryant said. “I understand she’s frustrated. We’re frustrated, so whatever we’re feeling has to be double or triple for her.”

Bryant said underwater cameras have been used, along with people searching in the water.

“We’re still searching,” Bryant said. “This is what we do and have been doing for 28 years. The West Virginia State Police are still tracking and looking for any leads.

“Finding a body in the Guyandotte River isn’t an easy thing to do. The riverbed isn’t just a flat, sandy bed. There are lots of holes, cars, underwater obstructions and brushpiles. There are lots of things to hold a body down.”

Bryant said he’d appreciate any help Mrs. Downard can call into the area to assist with the search.

“We’ll take all the help we can get, as many people who want to come here,” Bryant said. “Unfortunately, all our efforts have come up with nothing.”

Bryant said there’s nothing that proves Downard is in the river.

“To this point, there is more evidence that he’s in the river than not in the river. We have to go with the assumption that he’s in the river.

“We’re pretty sure that he