Sheriff’s Office: “Unfounded Event”

On October 27, 2023, Bourbon County Communication Center received a 911 call from an unknown and unidentifiable caller. The caller stated, “Please help me” before the phone was disconnected. The 911 call was pinged and found to come from the area of 180th and Hackberry. First responders were dispatched to the area and were not able to locate anyone. To error on the side of caution, an area search was conducted with approximately 20 first responders searching and making contact with area residents. Residents reached were informed of the 911 phone call. The residents were asked to check on anyone that they allow to be on their property in case of an accident. All vehicles parked along the roadways in the area of the ping were checked and contact was made with the owners.

Kansas Highway Patrol was notified and a request was made for assistance for in air-support, however KHP could not assist due to current case load and weather conditions. Contact was also made with surrounding law enforcement agencies for drone assistance and due to weather conditions drone assistance was also not available.

At approximately 5:16 yesterday a private individual, who is not affiliated with any responding agency made a post on their personal Facebook page stating the following, “…911 just received a call from someone who said that they just fell from a tree stand and then the phone went dead.” This post was screen-shot and then posted on the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office Facebook by another individual who is also not affiliated with any responding agency. As mentioned earlier, the 911 call came in as “please help me”. There was nothing mentioned in the 911 call of a person falling from a tree stand. This was and remains inaccurate information related to the 911 call that was received.

In the past 24 hours since the 911 call was received, there have been no calls of any missing person(s). At this time, the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office will have this incident documented and listed as un-founded event.

I would like to thank Undersheriff Kevin Davidson for his leadership and all other first responders who assisted in anyway with this call. Also, I would like to thank all the citizens for their willingness to assist if called upon. It is always disappointing when individuals take to Facebook with inaccurate and false information which causes panic and more questions than we have answers for within the community.

Respectfully submitted,

Wm K. Martin, Bourbon County Sheriff