Brent Crabtree, 39 (Source: Miller County Sheriff’s Office)

In a family beset with tragedies and hard times, in the wake of the death of patriarch Smokey Crabtree, comes word of another death in the Crabtree family.

Brent Crabtree was the son of James Lynn Crabtree, who died in 2011. Lynn, as he was called, was the second eldest son of Smokey Crabtree, who died recently.

Smokey’s grandson, Brent went missing last week, and he was found over the weekend.

The local media reports:

Authorities in Miller County, Arkansas have confirmed they found the body of a man reported missing last week.

According to the Miller County Sheriff’s Department, the body of 39-year-old Brent Crabtree was found just after 5 p.m. Sunday, [July 10, 2016] in a wooded area not far from Crabtree’s home.

Crabtree was reported missing last week by family members who reportedly told authorities he hadn’t been seen or heard from since July 5 [2016].

Search and rescue crews from Miller and Bowie counties spent Sunday looking for Crabtree.

Authorities say it’s still early in their investigation, but right now, no foul play is suspected.

Miller County, of course, and the Crabtree Family will forever be tied to the Legend of Boggy Creek and the sightings of the Fouke Monsters.

Julius E.”Smokey” Crabtree was raised in Fouke. He passed away on January 16, 2016, in Fouke, Arkansas.

Smokey outlived one of his sons, Tommy, who was killed in a welding pipe explosion in 1987, and relative Karen Sue Crabtree, 50, who was killed in a car wreck in 2009.

Karen Crabtree, who handmade the Fouke Monster dolls, was the sister-in-law of Keith Crabtree, the man who played the monster in The Legend of Boggy Creek. Also, Smokey’s wife Melva died June 11, 2005.

The second eldest son of Smokey Crabtree, James Lynn Crabtree, 60, of Fouke, Arkansas, died April 20, 2011, in a Little Rock, Arkansas hospital. Lynn, as he was known, had one of the most influential and important sightings of the Fouke Monster, when he was 14 years old.

Lynn Blackburn told of another Fouke Monster-related death that occurred on the same day that Lynn Crabtree died.

In a tragic coincidence, retired Miller County Sheriff, Leslie Greer, passed away on the same day [April 20, 2011]. Greer, who lived to the astounding age of 99, was the first public official to make reference to an early Fouke Monster sighting which was told to him in 1946. When the Fouke Monster came to the media’s attention in 1971, Greer recalled earlier sightings, dating back twenty years before Lynn Crabtree’s famous encounter.

So now another death has shaken Miller County, and our condolences are sent again to the fine folks we’ll all met there in the past on our many visits with Smokey in Fouke.

Thanks to Craig Woolheater for the sad news on Brent’s passing.