BUTLER COUNTY, Mo. – Connie Goodwin woke up on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 17, determined to bring her son home and bring an end to seven years of heartache and family grief.

Connie’s son, Edward Goodwin, was murdered in the summer of 2015. His murder went unsolved for two years until a break in the case led to arrests and, eventually, convictions of the men responsible.

But this was not the closure Connie and the Goodwin family needed. Edward’s remains were still out in the wilderness. But Connie says the Butler County Sheriff’s Department knew where Edward was located, and dragged its feet for years in retrieving his remains.

After waiting for authorities to act, Connie decided she’d had enough and, with the help of family, got her son back.

Connie said Edward was a self-employed tile layer and hard worker. He was a good son and better father, she said. Edward and his ex-wife had two children together: a son and daughter.

Edward was last seen on June 29, 2015. When he missed a Fourth of July family gathering, Connie reported him missing the following day.

For two years, the Goodwins had no idea where Edward was. By October and November 2017, both Connie and local law enforcement came to believe Eldrid Smith and Rickey Hurt were responsible for Edward’s disappearance and death, though Connie disagrees with Sheriff Mark Dobbs on the motive for the crime.

By November, the sheriff’s department was told Edward had been dumped in a small, private pond off County Road 572 near State Highway T. Authorities partially drained the pond and found human hip bones, a femur bone, and some ribs, Connie said.

Medical testing confirmed the bones were Edward Goodwin.

Both Smith and Hurt pleaded guilty in 2021 to second-degree murder charges in Goodwin’s death. At present, Smith is serving a 12-year sentence at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center in Pacific. Hurt is serving 18 years at Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Missouri.

Connie says Sheriff Dobbs promised her family that law enforcement would return to the pond to search for the rest of her son’s remains. So Connie and the Goodwin family waited. And waited. And waited.

For five years they waited.

Connie says she would get the run-around when asking for updates from the sheriff’s department. She says they gave her a litany of reasons for the delay: other investigations, inclement weather, not having the necessary equipment at the moment, or waiting on the Missouri State Highway Patrol for assistance.

“How can a parent go on thinking about leaving the rest behind is beyond me,” she said.

In fall 2021, the sheriff’s department attempted to drain the pond, but did not pump enough water to recover any remains. At one point, Connie said authorities tried to convince her coyotes had taken the rest of her son’s remains, but she refused to pay any mind to it.

Connie and her husband rented a sump pump of their own on Sept. 16, 2022, to drain the pond themselves. The following morning, they were joined by their daughter, as well as their grandson Gage—Edward’s son—on the trip to the pond.

The Goodwins arrived at 8 a.m. By 8:30 a.m., they started pumping the water out. Connie says the family could see bones sticking up through the water by 10:30 a.m. She contacted Butler County Coroner Jim Akers around 12:30 p.m. to tell him they were getting Edward’s remains.

Akers sped to the site by himself and arrived within 10 minutes of the phone call, Connie said. By then, Gage was in a kayak in the middle of the pond. Akers waded out in knee-high mud to pull the bones from the muck.

The county coroner recovered several large bones from the mud, as well as a skull. He passed some of the bones to Gage, who was then pulled back to shore in the kayak.

The coroner and Gage also retrieved cinder blocks and barbed wire from the mud that had been used as a makeshift anchor to submerge Edward’s body.

Connie said Akers was very professional under the circumstances and described him as an “honest man.” She has less-than-kind words for the sheriff’s department and former county coroner.

She says the Butler County Sheriff’s Department’s inaction denied Edward justice and her family closure for five unnecessary years.

“Edward was stripped from his rights. And to be treated like this is inhumane,” Connie told FOX 2.

Connie says her son’s remains were cremated. She got his ashes on Tuesday, Sept. 27, and finally took him home.