At McCommas Bluff Landfill, The Search for a Missing City Sanitation Worker Ends

Last night a disturbing e-mail from Dallas police arrived in the Unfair Park in-box: "For your 9:00 news, everything remains the same at the landfill. The searching will cease for the night here shortly and will continue in the morning." It was the first note we'd received about someone missing...

By Robert Wilonsky

May 11, 2010

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Last night a disturbing e-mail from Dallas police arrived in the Unfair Park in-box: "For your 9:00 news, everything remains the same at the landfill. The searching will cease for the night here shortly and will continue in the morning." It was the first note we'd received about someone missing at the landfill.

This morning, Lt. Andy Harvey, DPD spokesman, fills in the blanks.

He says that at 1 p.m. yesterday, a city of Dallas Sanitation Services Department worker checked in at the McCommas Bluff Landfill to dump his truck. Two hours later, a fellow sanitation worker found his colleague's truck -- "running and abandoned," according to Harvey's e-mail. Landfill employees began looking for the sanitation worker, but rescue workers called off the search around 9 p.m. Says Harvey this morning, "The search continues."

But Dallas Fire-Rescue now worries a rescue effort has turned into a recovery effort.

Update at 9:58 a.m.: Harvey sends word that "a body was just found at the McCommas Landfill, believed to be the employee who went missing there yesterday." More details forthcoming.

Update at 12:38 p.m.: Police have identified the driver as 42-year-old Roderick Terrell. He drove a brush collection truck for the city, and, according to the Texas Tribune's city employee database, he's worked for the city since September 26, 2007.

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