Dog found in the search for two hunters is not their dog

A dog spotted in the search area for two missing hunters is not the hunters’ dog.

On Thursday, Dec. 3, Gunner Palmer, 16, and Zeb Hughes, 21, both from Copiah County, Mississippi, went out on a boat with their black Labrador retriever, Kye, to find a good spot for duck hunting near Davis Island.

Palmer and Hughes never returned from their Mississippi River hunting trip, and dozens of trained personnel and volunteers have been searching for them since that cold, rainy Thursday.

A couple of days into the search, some of the would-be rescuers saw a black Lab roaming the woods and running down a nearby road. The hope was that the dog was Kye, but no one could get close enough to the dog to catch it.

Humane traps were set for the dog a few days later, and Friday morning, the mystery dog was caught. Kye’s trainer was called to help identify the dog.

Sadly, the trainer said it was not Kye. The dog caught in the trap had different coloration and markings.

The search for Palmer and Hughes is now in its eighth day.