Like many rural counties, Merced is losing deputies to jurisdictions that pay more. The shortage is so dire, Sheriff Vern Warnke is sometimes the only one available to respond to calls for help.
The death of a Missouri doctor whose body was found 11 months ago in a northwest Arkansas lake has been ruled a suicide, Arkansas authorities said Thursday in a case that fueled social media speculation about whether his disappearance had been tied to his cryptocurrency dealings. Detectives with the Benton County, Arkansas, sheriff's office located surveillance videos of Dr. John Forsyth riding a bicycle to Beaver Lake, some 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of where he was last seen in Cassville, Missouri, the sheriff's office said in a statement. The sheriff's office said the bicycle was discovered near where Forsyth’s body was found.