Search comes up empty after body part found in Grand River

LANSING - A police search of the Grand River near the Brenke Fish Ladder came up empty after someone discovered the lower part of a human leg attached to a tennis shoe while fishing in the area on Friday morning, police said.

The Capital Area Dive Team called off the search around 4 p.m. without locating any other evidence of a victim, said Lansing police Sgt. Bryan Curtis, the team’s commander. A Michigan State Police cadaver dog was brought in to help with the operation, which lasted about six hours, he said.

The Ingham County Medical Examiner’s office is investigating who the leg belonged to, Lansing police Public Information Officer Robert Merritt said. As of this afternoon, police had not released any identifying information.

Small crowds gathered on both sides of the river to watch as the dive team conducted the search. The Grand River access site on the eastern bank, where police set up a makeshift operations center, was surrounded with yellow police tape.

Josephina “JoJo” Betancourt, 38, and her boyfriend, Manuel Montenegro Peña, 56, went missing in April. Betancourt’s car was found in a city parking lot adjacent to the Brenke Fish Ladder. Her body was pulled from the river on May 8.

Peña was never found.

“The fact that the male half of this couple has not been seen or heard from since that time frame remains concerning to us,” Lansing police Capt. Darin Southworth said at the time. “We are hopeful that he is alive and we hope to find him soon.”

It was unclear on Friday night whether the dive team would resume searching on Saturday.

“We’re kind of at a standstill about what our next step will be,” Curtis said. “We’re trying to use every means that we know of. We are just as anxious to bring closure as we know the family, themselves, must be. We're further to closure than we were yesterday, but it's unfortunate we didn't find more.”

Even so, Curtis said it may be possible to make an identification of the recovered remains using DNA or other means.

Members of Betancourt’s family were at the scene Friday. They said they hoped to learn if the leg belonged to Peña, the last person she was seen with.

“It (might) answer a question or two, but there’s still at lot out there we don’t know,” her husband, Robert Betancourt, said.

Friday would have been Josephina Betancourt’s 39th birthday.

Her mother, Sophie Arreguin, said the family planned to release 39 lanterns at the fish ladder Friday night.

Ken Palmer contributed to this report.

Contact Christopher Behnan at (517) 377-1261 or cbehnan@lsj.com . Follow him on Twitter @LansingCB.