What caused a splash in the Missouri River the night Renzo Bullhead disappeared?

On June 5, in response to a public records request Buffalo’s Fire filed with the Morton County Public Information Office, the Mandan Police Department released 77 hours of surveillance video from that night. And while much of it shows little more than railroad tracks and distant traffic, one compelling piece of footage comes from the east waterway camera on the Bismarck side, roughly 20 minutes after Bullhead crosses under the camera on the opposite end.

At the 8:38:32 p.m. mark, a sizable splash of water appears near the shore. The water foams and sprays high into the air, with a pattern that resembles wings. The water churns and forms a brief halo, and then five seconds later the river resumes coursing normally.

The dark, pixelated footage makes it difficult to see what caused the splash.

“I saw the footage,” said Diedra Leaf, Bullhead’s mother. “It doesn’t show him in there for certain. It could be a lot of things, maybe a rock someone threw in. Maybe even a fish, jumping.”

Mandan Police have not responded to questions on what they think caused the splash.

Leaf said she does not believe Bullhead deliberately jumped into the river, saying, “My son is not suicidal.”

Leaf says the railroad bridge is a familiar way for people to cross back and forth between Mandan and Bismarck. She believes her son was using it to see two friends in a nearby trailer park.

“I dumped him off with two friends, around 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 16. He was on spring break.”

Leaf believes footage from the night of Bullhead’s disappearance shows him talking to his girlfriend via Snapchat as he approaches the bridge. Leaf and Blue Thunder declined to share the girlfriend’s name, saying she does not want to be contacted.

Leaf is anxious about what kind of trouble may have befallen Bullhead, and feels that investigators aren’t sharing enough information or helping her and supporters access some of the places her son was last seen.

Leaf and Bullhead’s stepdad, Delaine Blue Thunder, say they’ve seen clips and stills from the surveillance videos but want to see longer and uncut footage from multiple cameras, covering the period between 7:20 p.m. on March 16 and 4 a.m. on March 17.

Mandan PD Lt. Brent Wilmeth said in an email to Buffalo’s Fire that a flash drive with all available footage was given to Bullhead’s parents after they declined to watch the clips at the police department.

In addition to sharing the video surveillance footage with the family, Wilmeth outlined the efforts taken by authorities to explore the last known location of Bullhead.

“The area under the bridge is not considered a crime scene,” he wrote. “The area has been searched by at least three sonar teams. At least one of them used cadaver dogs that specialized in water searches. We have used drones, foot patrols and bloodhounds. We have had NDHP [North Dakota Highway Patrol] planes fly many flights up and down the river searching. Nothing was found by these teams.”

Leaf and other relatives are demanding more access to areas under and around the bridge. Complicating things is the bridge replacement work currently underway by the Ames Construction company.

“[Ames] is still not allowing our searchers on site,” she said. Leaf and others are concerned that crucial time is slipping by and more people in Bullhead’s circle aren’t being brought in and questioned.

“Sergeant [Joshua] Scherr just asked me for Renzo’s blood type,” Leaf added. “Why now? Why not earlier?”

Wilmeth said both Ames Construction and BNSF Railway have been fully cooperative with the investigation, allowing NDHP bloodhounds to search the dry areas around their construction site.

“Ames construction put officers on a boat to look around the site and the grounds just last week,” continued Wilmeth. “Civilian searchers have been allowed to search but have been limited for liability reasons.”

Wilmeth said the BNSF owns the property, and the MPD has no control over who is allowed to access it. “The companies would be liable for any injuries or death of any one they allow on the property.”

In regard to Scherr asking Leaf for Bullhead’s blood type, Wilmeth said that’s for a missing person database called NamUs, which law enforcement agencies use to help identify unknown people who end up in a hospital or morgue.

Bullhead’s family has also raised questions about the girlfriend. They say Scherr knows about her, but they don’t believe he’s talked to her about Bullhead’s disappearance.

“We had a discussion last week about the girlfriend,” wrote Wilmeth. “She does not live in town, but a [Bureau of Criminal Investigation] agent has had phone calls with her. He has the Snapchat exchange from Renzo and is going to interview the girlfriend as soon as he can.”

Leaf is hoping if investigators send divers into the murky waters of the Missouri River again, they’ll let her know beforehand.

“I’d like to say prayers and watch. For them, and for Renzo,” she said.

Wilmeth said the Mandan Police does not have a water search team or any equipment to do water searches, but Major Gary Schaffer of the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department said its water rescue team has spent between 150 and 200 hours on the Bullhead case.

“That’s surface and underwater, not just scuba diving,” he said. “We also used an underwater drone which does sonar.”

Schaffer said there were a couple of targets detected, but none ended up being a body. He also said the BCSD recently spent a week with a Bureau of Indian Affairs team jointly searching the waters.

“The problem is, the Missouri River is very tricky,” he said. “I wish there was more we could do.”

Schaffer said the decision to continue searching the water would have to come from the Mandan PD, as it’s their investigation. He said with everyone involved, including people from Badlands Search and Rescue, the search for Bullhead has been a “monumental effort.”