After a community-organized search party found the body of an Idaho Springs man, who had previously been reported missing, the Clear Creek County sheriff is now saying its assessment of the initial missing person’s report was “not acceptable.”

On Saturday, three days after 57-year-old Paul Peavey was reported missing, a group of community members found his body within minutes of starting a search for him.

In a post to an Idaho Springs Facebook group Tuesday, Sheriff Matthew Harris acknowledged his office received a missing person’s report on Wednesday evening, but a deputy never went to the property that night.

“We didn’t go, and it was not the right decision,” Harris said in an interview with 9NEWS.

Bruce Boynton, the search party organizer and a close friend of Peavey’s, said they shouldn’t have been the ones to find Peavey’s body, and that authorities should have acted sooner.

Harris said he agrees.

“It’s one of the things that weighs heavy on my heart is that that these folks had to go, and they had to see that,” Harris said. “And we should have been there, side by side, assisting on that.”

In the statement, Harris said a missing persons case was opened for Peavey only after the caller who reported his disappearance on Wednesday called again the following day.

He added that, although a deputy did make efforts to find Peavey on Thursday — including searching his property and entering his name into national missing persons databases — the sheriff’s office could have done additional things, such as sharing his information on social media and partaking in Saturday’s search party, which was made up of more than 40 community members.

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