Shaun Shaw

A man whose brother has been missing since an April 19 canoe accident on the Kansas River says his family is relieved his brother’s body has been found.

This morning, a Douglas County coroner confirmed that the body found Monday was Shaun Shaw, 26, De Soto.

His brother, Michael Shaw, said Tuesday that it definitely was his brother whose body was discovered in the water near 78th Street and Holliday Drive in Kansas City, Kan. The site is about 27 river miles from where Shaun Shaw last was seen after a canoe flipped over on the Kaw.

“It’s a relief to have closure,” Michael Shaw said.

Shaun Shaw disappeared when the canoe he and two other men were in overturned on the Kansas River a mile and a half northeast of Eudora. The three men left a boat ramp in Eudora on an outing to collect morels along the banks of the Kaw.

The outing was typical of his brother, an outdoorsman who lived with his mother, Karen Shaw, on a bank overlooking the Kansas River in a hilly, wooded area between De Soto and Eudora known locally as Little Arkansas.

“It was what he lived for,” Michael Shaw said. “He would get up at 5 in the morning to go hunting and go to work at 8.”

Shaun Shaw worked since early December at Coast to Coast in Eudora.

“He’s been with us since we opened,” said Shannon Rheaume, owner of the magazine marketing firm. “He was a great guy. Caring. He would do anything for anyone.”

Michael Shaw said the family had a vigil Monday evening on the river near where his brother disappeared.