DALLAS -- Dallas police say the body found by an SMU police sergeant at the edge of a Trinity River levee on Wednesday afternoon is that of an SMU officer who disappeared during a flash flood almost two months ago.
The sergeant discovered the human remains in a large pile of sticks and debris that had washed up on the banks of the river just north of Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
The body has been determined to be Ofc. Mark McCullers, 45, a police officer from Southern Methodist University, who was killed during a flash flood on July 5.
"We're rendering our honors," said Dallas Police Major Jimmy Vaughan on Wednesday. "I'm assuming it's [Mark McCullers], the police officer we're looking for, so we paid our respects."
Ever since McCullers was washed downstream, walking the banks of the Trinity has become routine for the university cops.
"The SMU supervisor comes down here approximately three times a week,” said Dallas Police Maj. Jimmy Vaughan. “[He] usually comes with another officer or two."
On Wednesday evening, the McCuller family told WFAA they’re hopeful this finding could bring closure, because a shoe discovered during the first week of searching matches one found on the body Wednesday.
Dental records were used to positively identify the remains.
After police divers helped remove the body, workers from the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office unfurled an American flag on the scene and draped it over the stretcher.
Police lined up and saluted as the gurney was pushed away.
The McCullers tragedy began than three miles away and seven weeks earlier.
"It's flooding. It's about to go in my car," said McCullers in a 911 recording as he called for help in the early morning hours of July 5.
McCullers was working off-duty guarding a residential construction site when a torrential rain storm resulted in a flash flood along Turtle Creek.
Surveillance video from the home under construction shows McCullers struggling to push open the passenger door of his Dodge Charger as water rises all around.
It was the last time he was seen alive.
"My only concern is finding him," said Tiffany McCullers, the officer’s wife, last month.
She held out hope, but now awaits closure.
"He's one of us. We don't stop looking for our own,” Maj. Vaughan added on Wednesday afternoon.
The Dallas Police Department’s dive team and SMU police responded to the scene at the corner of Oak Lawn Avenue and Levee Street, which is northeast of downtown.
The SMU sergeant who found the body originally reported it was in uniform.
Maj. Vaughan said he did not know whether the remains were in uniform or if a firearm was also found.
On July 28, more than 300 people attended a memorial service for McCullers, a father of six who served as a Marine, at the McFarlin Auditorium at SMU. McCullers joined the SMU Police Department in early 2015.