Body Found In Irrigation Canal Near Stratford Believed To Be Missing Moses Lake Man

Authorities in Grant County have recovered a body they believe is that of a Moses Lake man who went missing over Labor Day Weekend.

The Grant County Sheriff's Office says the body was pulled from an irrigation canal near Stratford Road and Road 16 Northeast about 16 miles north of Moses Lake on Thursday morning.

Investigators believe the body is that of 70-year-old Richard D. Johnson, whose unoccupied pickup truck was discovered with its motor running by an employee with the Quincy-Columbia Basin Irrigation District at around 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5 near the 23000 block of Pinto Ridge Road Northeast.

The employee and a responding deputy reportedly witnessed a body floating in the current of a nearby irrigation canal but were unable to retrieve it, after the body entered a siphon running under State Route 28.

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The body pulled from the canal on Thursday morning was found by Irrigation District employees about eight miles south of where Johnson's truck was discovered and the location of the body that was seen floating in the canal last weekend.

Sheriff's officials say Johnson was last seen at around 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, when a home surveillance camera captured him leaving his residence on Road M.2 Northeast in rural Moses Lake.

Detectives add they have no reason to suspect that foul play is in any way involved with Johnson's disappearance and assumed death.

Crews with Grant County Fire District No. 5 recovered the body from the canal.
The Grant County Coroner's Office is now working to confirm the identity of the body and establish an exact cause and manner of death.