A Sequoyah county family is grieving after a man was found dead in a Sallisaw creek.
The body of 53-year-old Timothy Wade Ward was pulled from a creek near the mouth of the Arkansas River on June 27. Authorities identified the body over the weekend.
His family, who reported him missing five days after the body was discovered, believes he was killed.
"He didn't go out there bare foot, I know Tim,” said Robert Ward, his brother. “He's to tender footed to anywhere barefooted."
Ward’s body was found without shoes.
The sheriff’s office believes Ward was last seen around June 19 or June 20. He had a doctor’s appointment and was later seen at a local Walmart.
Investigators believed Ward had filled a prescription for pain pills before he went missing. Ward’s family says he’d been taking both morphine and hydrocodone. Both the Sequoyah County Sheriff Ron Lockhart and Ward’s family believes that raises a red flag.
"His girlfriend and her two sons they had beat him up, take his medicine nearly every month,” said his mother Gladys Ward. “She would take his check and cash it."
Anyone with information on Ward’s death is asked to call the sheriff’s office at (918) 775-9155.
His body is being held in Tulsa at the state medical examiner’s office. No funeral arrangements have been made at this time, according to the family.
Ward grew up in the small community of Akins, Okla. His brother Robert says he was an incredible athlete growing up.
