Official: Unlikely Missing Soldier Mistook Pier

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Aransas County Sheriff's Office via AP
This undated image provided by the Aransas County (Texas) Sheriff's Office shows Jamie Wagner Sengvanhpheng. Divers are searching a South Texas bay for the soldier, who authorities believe drove his car off a pier.

Official: Unlikely Missing Soldier Mistook Pier

By Christopher Sherman - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 2, 2009 7:00:48 EST

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The South Texas pier that a missing soldier apparently drove his car off the day after Christmas runs closely parallel to the causeway crossing Copano Bay, but its overseer said Monday there was no way of mistaking it for the road.

“It’s hard to get on that,” said Keith Barrett, harbormaster for the Aransas County Navigation District, which runs the Copano Bay Fishing Pier in Rockport. “You have to get a hard turn.”

Some speculation has circulated among acquaintances of Pfc. Jamie Wagner Sengvanhpheng that the 21-year-old home on leave for the holidays from Fort Bragg, N.C., mistakenly drove out the pier thinking it was the causeway.

Colton Carroll, who graduated a year behind Sengvanhpheng at Rockport-Fulton High School, wrote in an e-mail that he heard Sengvanhpheng intended to cross the causeway, “and he drove straight off into the water instead of going onto the bridge.”

James Sengvanhpheng, Jamie’s brother, said Monday he did not know if his brother was trying to cross the causeway.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/01/ap_missing_soldier_122908/%2e