The search for a missing Roanoke Rapids man ended today after a search team found his body in a swamp behind his house.

Detective Rich Somogyi of the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office declined to say whether Edward Lee Bare, known to friends and family as Lee, took his own life. Those findings will be determined by an autopsy, he said.

His body was found at approximately 2 p.m., four hours after a search team of rescue squad members, firefighters and citizens combed a 2-mile area looking for the man who was reported missing by his wife Monday.

“Thanks to all the people who searched for him today,” said Bare’s sister, Melissa Taylor, who lives in Georgia. “That’s what helped find him.”

She said, choking back tears, the family planned to release a more detailed statement following the autopsy.

Search team members study maps.

Earlier today, Somogyi instructed the some 41 volunteers to search the wooded areas around his house on Easton Street and around his body shop on Airbase Road.

Some people who had cars at the body shop for work were there to claim their vehicles.

Somogyi also instructed the team to search in a subdivision off Zoo Road where cell towers picked up a call on his phone.

Somogyi told the volunteers there had been no leads in the case.

Terry Horton, who said he was a friend of the 48-year-old Bare, organized the search because Bare “is a citizen, neighbor and friend. It’s our duty as people to do it. I would want to have someone do it for me if I was missing.”

A search party members holds Bare's photo.

Horton said he had known Bare a long time. “He would always lend a helping hand. He was happy, he was a good person. I’ve heard rumors but he always treated me as a friend.”

Michael Kidd, a captain with the Davie Fire Department, which served as the coordinating agency for the search, said the search encompassed Zoo Road, the old airport and areas around Highway 158.

Public volunteers, the Rheasville Volunteer Fire Department, Halifax EMS and the Roanoke Valley Rescue Squad participated in the search.

The search team paired up in groups of four to walk areas and ride four-wheelers through other areas. There were 12 four-wheelers involved in the search.

Somogyi said later this afternoon one of the search teams found Bare, but could not be more specific.