Lake Grapevine Search – June 22, 2014
On June 22, 2014, the Texas Department of Public Safety called the TEXSAR activation line in regard to a missing mountain biker, 30 year old Wesley Andrew Hixson, who was last seen around 10 a.m. on June 21st. Hixson crashed his mountain bike prior to getting separated from his group and may have suffered a head injury. Flower Mound PD and other agencies had conducted a search the night before TEXSAR was contacted. Within 45 minutes of activation 7 GSAR rated TEXSAR Dallas Team Members and 2 K9 assets arrived at Murrell Park and checked in with incident command for assignments while TEXSAR Austin’s Austin team deployed and placed additional personnel on standby. Due to the fact that Hixson’s father is a veteran firefighter with the Arlington Fire Department, more than 100 local firefighters deployed to assist in the search, many of them from Arlington and Dallas Fire Rescue. Additional agencies included Denton County, Grapevine PD, Flower Mound FD, Search One K9 Team, Texas Parks and Wildlife boat and ground personnel, and a Texas DPS helicopter. Crews searched 1,500 acres of wet and muddy terrain with varying elevation densely covered with vegetation. The following day at approximately 2:15 p.m. , search teams located the victim in a ravine northeast of Twin Coves Marina.
TEXSAR would like to thank all the agencies involved in this effort and expresses its condolences to the Hixon family.
