The search for OOIDA member Ulyss "Joe" Putman ended Monday, Dec. 2, when his body was found in his sleeper at a truckstop in Okemah, OK.

The 54-year-old owner-operator from Apache Junction, AZ, was reported missing Nov. 27. Naomi Putman told Land Line Nov. 27 that she last talked with her husband Saturday, Nov. 23, when he called her from Clinton, OK, after dropping a load there.

Upon advice from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Naomi filed missing person reports with police in Clinton and Pinal County, AZ. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office issued a missing person report Nov. 27 with a special alert to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas authorities.

Ed Smith Jr., chief of police in Okemah, received a call Monday, Dec. 2, from an employee of the Love's truckstop about a truck that had been parked at the retail outlet for several days. A license plate check of the locked truck pulled up the missing person report. Smith forced open the truck door and found the trucker's body in the sleeper. Authorities suspected he died of a heart attack.

"He apparently died of natural causes," Smith said. "He looked like he went to sleep and just didn't wake up."
--By Rene Tankersley, feature editor