Mission 6 is similar to mission 149 in our previous post in that it involved a person going missing after abandoning their vehicle. January 18th our male subject decided to test out his new Jeep by driving up 31 mile road out of Espanola. Several miles in he slid off the road and became stuck. A missing persons report was filed when the gentleman did not return home. State Police found his vehicle and on January 20th the Brigade was called to assist in locating the individual because he was not with his car and an initial search of the area by State Police officers turned up nothing. Nine members from the Brigade responded with four 4×4 vehicles as we were advised the road was snow packed. At incident base we were joined by a ground pounder from the Mountain Canine Corp. who also had Jeep and in one caravan we headed up the road to the subjects vehicle.
Our initial mission was to slowly drive the road looking along the sides for signs for any evidence of the subject or things that might attract the subject such as cabins. Unfortunately it snowed between the time our subject went missing and the time we joined the search so finding tracks was unlikely. Arriving at the subject’s Jeep we were asked to send a team to a nearby cabin and search it. However, we soon learned the State Police helicopter had landed there an hour or so earlier and cleared the structure. One of our members suggested we should do a careful grid search around the vehicle looking for any evidence. With daylight waning we searched as much area as we could before heading back to our vehicles. We wanted to be off the road before dark and before the road iced up.
Unfortunately, we found no clues as to where our missing person could be. Back at incident base we downloaded our tracks we had recorded on our GPS units to command staff for further study to determine where to look next. A lesson to all – Best not to abandon your vehicle. It is shelter and easier to find.
