Body discovered during search for missing Mrs. Dallas pageant queen, Texas police say
Police recovered a body in a lake Thursday near the site where Mrs. Dallas pageant queen Lashun Massey went missing earlier this week.
It’s unclear if the body found in Lake de Claire in Irving, Texas, is of Massey, who was set to compete for the title of Mrs. Texas America , police say. The Texas Department of Public Safety dive team helped Irving police recover the body, which was sent to the Dallas County Medical Examiner to be identified.
“I can say that the person recovered (had) clothing (that) does match that of our missing person’s identification that she was last seen wearing,” Irving Police Department Public Information Officer Robert Reeves said in a news briefing Thursday streamed by KTVT.
The 38-year-old Massey went missing while wearing a black hoodie and checkered pajama pants. She was walking near Lake Lago de Claire in the Las Colinas area of Irving, according to police.
Witnesses saw Massey walking near the lake and asked if she was OK, and Massey replied that she was, according to KTVT.
“After that, they said they saw her exit the water and then we later received a tip someone else had seen her walking in the water again a couple hours later,” local firefighter Robert Keeker told KTVT.
Her husband called police when Massey did not come home on time to get her sons ready for school, KXAS reported.
Crews searched for Massey in the lake Tuesday but did not find her, according to KXAS.
Massey, a mom to two young boys, received her Ph.D. in civil engineering from Virginia Tech, according to her pageant website. She also authored the autobiography, “The Face of the New Engineer,” which she wrote “to help inspire and motivate others to pursue science and engineering careers.”
Her LinkedIn shows she is a program manager for research at the University of Texas at Dallas.
The Mrs. Texas America pageant, which Massey said she would compete in, will take place in September.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 9:47 AM with the headline "Body discovered during search for missing Mrs. Dallas pageant queen, Texas police say."