Developing Story: Teams Continue Search for Missing Hiker

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Developing Story: Teams Continue Search for Missing Hiker

By G.T. Houts
Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Green Valley Lake, CA – Search and Rescue teams from Sierra Madre, San Dimas and Riverside are now involved in the extensive search for 62-year-old Dean Christy in the Green Valley Lake area. Christy has been missing since last Friday afternoon.

Teams were scheduled to begin arriving at the search area at 5:00 am today (January 8) and will be joined by a team from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and snow cats driven by San Bernardino County Fire personnel. Air support from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department is also expected.

"Yesterday there were about 43 search and rescue volunteers searching the area north and east of Green Valley Lake," according to Sheriff's Department PIO Arden Wiltshire. "Plans were to continue the search through the night with a small group of about 12 team members remaining in the area, including snow cats and snowmobiles."

Scanner traffic from the Sierra Madre team at 8:19 pm Monday to the command post at the Green Valley Lake Fire Station indicated the squad was going to continue searching for the next few hours.

Two Sheriff's Department helicopters spent most of yesterday flying over the area looking for any trace of the missing hiker whose family members gathered at the command post to offer support for the various search teams.

Temperatures in the search area are still low but no new snowfall has been reported since early Monday morning.

Just before 4:00 pm Monday, scanner traffic from one of the helicopters reported there were four subjects that did not appear to be part of the rescue teams at Forest Service Roads 2n13 and 2n54.

"We want to make sure," the pilot, stated, "they are not family members out looking." The command center explained the family was still at the fire station.

Shortly after that scanner transmission, the command post was notified a non-search vehicle was stuck within the search grid and had to be assisted by members of the official search party.

Corporal Bryan Lane from the Sheriff's Department has stated several times that search and rescue teams do not need non-trained persons searching in the area where snow depths are approximately 4-feet deep.

"We don't need any additional volunteers," Lane told news media gathered at the command post, "We don't need to be looking for any additional people."

The fresh snow caused several search vehicles to get stuck and had to be assisted by the snow cats before teams could return to the command post and continue their search.

Source: Rimoftheworld.net is following story very closely.

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Tuesday, January 8, 2008