Reddit Does Better Investigations Than The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office

by Travis Mateer

For those unfamiliar with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, the man on the left is the former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, and the man on the right is our current Sheriff, Jeremiah Petersen. Both men were elected by the public to be Sheriff, and both men need to be reminded who they work for.

The County raises in compensation reported by Gomer’s rag make Sheriff Petersen the second highest paid employee of the County. Matt Jennings, our lead County Attorney, is number one.

“We comparatively look at other counties across the state to determine compensation,” said county CAO Chris Lounsbury. “They were looking at a 3% cost-of-living adjustment for elected officials. It’s in keeping with what’s happening for our non-union personnel staff.”

The Missoula County attorney remains the highest paid elected official with a total salary now set at $148,865, followed by the Missoula County sheriff at $147,748.

With human remains found in the Deep Creek area over the weekend, I did my own legwork by making calls to the crime lab, the funeral home, then driving out to the area to see what I could see (nothing much). Turns out, all I really needed to do was check out Reddit.

My call to the funeral home was worth it, though, because the guy on the phone said a couple noteworthy things, like the likelihood of remains being taken directly to the crime lab by the Sheriff’s Office if the remains were just bones.

The other notable comment from the funeral home supervisor? In response to my comment about the powerful role of the Sheriff’s Office when combined with the duties of the Coroner, he said “Yep, the Sheriff is the most powerful law enforcement in the state”.

The reason I visited the Reddit thread is because I noticed an overnight spike in my stats. The post getting the attention was this one about Joey Thompson, and it was linked in the thread to back up a commenter making the claims I had written about. When I read the following comment, I immediately screen-shot it. Here it is:

Another comment clarified that “beat the body” meant Kasen wanted to get downstream to find the body before anyone else did. To this day the individual who found Joey Thompson’s body in the Clark Fork river hasn’t been publicly identified.

For more information on this particular example of the Sheriff’s Office capabilities, or lack thereof, here are the posts I’ve written about the disappearance and death of Joey Thompson:

Some Curious Things NOT Happening In The Joey Thompson Missing Person Case (May 5th, 2023)

Who Knows What Happened to Joey Thompson? (May 15th, 2023)

We Adults Are Failing The Friends Of Joey Thompson (May 20th, 2023)

Why Are Two Sheriff Offices Now Failing To Call Me Back Or Acknowledge Any Investigation In The Death Of Joey Thompson? (May 28th, 2023)

Who Found Joey Thompson’s Body In The Clark Fork River, And Where? (June 19th, 2023)

Joey Thompson’s Death Certificate Information Has Finally Been Released, Now What? (June 29th, 2023)

If you appreciate an open-source citizen journalist like myself using tools like Reddit to show how pathetic the “real” investigators are in this town, then consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). No one else is doing the kind of work I’m doing in this town, and the retaliation I’ve earned from the narrative controllers is a good indicator I’m over the target.

Thanks for reading!