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Authorities find body believed to be missing man
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Photos by JANET L. MATHEWS/The Columbian
Vancouver police Detective Sgt. Scott Creager,
right, points into the 25-foot-deep hole where a
body believed to be that of James L. Moore was
found Wednesday. |
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Thursday, March 27, 2008
By JUSTIN CARINCI and JOHN BRANTON, Columbian staff writers
Vancouver police are nearly certain that crews on
Wednesday excavated the remains of James L. Moore, a homeless man who last
summer had showed family members the spot where he was digging for buried
treasure.
A man’s body, as well as a shovel and scrap lumber
used for shoring up tunnels, were pulled from a 25-feet-deep hole he’d dug by
hand near an old well, police said. Moore was reported missing in November.
The site is above meandering Burnt Bridge Creek and
near Burnt Bridge Creek Trail, just north of state Highway 500 and east of St.
Johns Boulevard.
“He has an extensive history of digging,” said
Detective Patrick Kennedy with the Vancouver Police Department. “It’s documented
by his family, and he took family members to this spot.”
At the bottom of the hole were at least two horizontal
tunnels that branched off from the main chamber, Kennedy said.
“This is something I have never heard of before, and
to see the extent of the work,” Kennedy added. “To say it’s amazing is an
understatement.”
It’s not clear how far the tunnels go, Kennedy said.
Police found an area, 6 feet in diameter, that had apparently collapsed,
exposing the roots of two trees.
And there’s no way to know when the tunnel system
collapsed, Kennedy said.
After months of planning by detectives with the Major
Crimes Unit and others, crews began digging there Wednesday morning, using small
and large excavating machines on the hilltop.
A large city of Vancouver pumper-tanker truck with a
heavy hose sucked loosened dirt and mud from the hole.
Rain, combined with the rumbling of heavy diesel
equipment, could cause the already destabilized soil to slip, said Jim Flaherty,
firefighter-spokesman with the Vancouver Fire Department.
Firefighters trained in tunnel rescues stood by as
safety officers, in case it became necessary to send someone into the hole. But
that wasn’t needed.
Also on hand were police detectives who had worked
with the man’s family and search dogs to determine where to dig. About 3:45
p.m., officers radioed that they’d found clothing and human remains.
Workers later were seen carrying a bag containing the
body, which was taken to the Clark County Office of the Medical Examiner. DNA
will be used to establish identification.
Moore’s family last saw him in October, Kennedy said.
He was reported missing Nov. 24.
Disappearing for long periods of time was typical for
Moore, 46, a transient with mental health issues, Kennedy said.
“It was not unusual for the family not to have contact
with him for an extended time,” Kennedy said. “But when it started to get
colder, it was very unusual for him not to come home.”
After Moore was reported missing in November,
detectives went to the site and showed his photos to people on the trail. Some
said they recognized his face as that of a man who dug there, Kennedy said.
Police brought two dogs trained to sniff out cadavers
to the trail on separate occasions. Both hit on the same spot independently,
Kennedy said.
On Wednesday, members of Pacific Crest Search Dogs
were helping with the recovery effort. The dogs typically find people lost in
wilderness areas, not buried underground, said the group’s Sharon Ward.
“This is a stretch for us, but if they’re able to get
the soil aerated, maybe they can get a scent,” Ward said.
Workers stopped excavating at midmorning Wednesday to
give the dogs a sniff, Kennedy said. At least one dog indicated that it had
picked up a scent.
Passersby knew Moore
As crews worked to recover the body, Dana Sutherland,
39, who lives nearby, said she’d talked to Moore, known to her as Jimmy, about a
year ago.
She said she likes to dig in the hillside, where she’s
found old bottles to collect.
“He said he was a shaman, like a priest in a different
religion,” Sutherland said. “He said he was digging for buried treasure, but it
wasn’t treasure we would call treasure.
“He said his treasure had rested in the roots of
trees, and the bones of certain animals.”
She said their conversation made her uncomfortable, so
she walked away.
“I’ve known him for a couple of months,” said Lewis
Williams, 43, a landscaper who often rides the trail on his bicycle with his
dog, Layla.
“He dug under two big pine trees,” Williams said. “He
seemed pretty nice. His main story was he was American Indian, and his belief
was, when they died, they’d dig a hole and get buried. I guess he got his wish.”
After the body was recovered, workers were considering
ways to make sure the hole posed no threat for people who might go there,
Kennedy said.
As he left the scene, police Detective Sgt. Scott
Creager said it had been a difficult day, but rewarding.
“It’s good for the family,” Creager said. “We’ve done
the best we could for them.”
John Branton can be reached at 360-735-4513 or
john.branton@columbian.com. Justin Carinci can be reached at 360-735-4517.
Special Report: Surviving a Northwest Winter, Part 2
Story Published: Dec 15, 2006 at 5:06 PM PDT
Story Updated: Dec 16, 2006 at 12:49 PM PDT
By Grant McOmie and KATU Web Staff
TILLAMOOK STATE FOREST - The Northwest outdoors can be a cruel environment if you are caught unprepared.
Mike Arbogast found that out last month when he went hunting for elk and ended up spending two terrifying days in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest after falling over a log and snapping his left leg in two places.
 "I didn't know if search and rescue was going to show up or not," he said. "I didn't know if they were going to wait 24 hours. That's when the journey started."
Arbogast crawled for hours - up and down hillsides and across creeks.
"My knees, I could feel were bloody," he said. "Every inch was just agonizing."
Just when he thought things could not get worse, he heard a bear, just yards away.
"The terrifying thought was that I've got a broken leg, I'm lost, there's a bear out there and all I have is a knife," he said. "I had no idea what was going to happen. So I grabbed my knife and just covered myself as tight as I could and just held on."
When Arbogast was at his lowest, struggling with incredible pain from a broken leg, suffering from hypothermia, unsure if he would see the next light of day, he heard a ringing bell that changed everything.
That bell was attached to a dog named Kunga, which is not just any dog, but a dog trained for search and rescue.
 "So I heard this bell and I saw this dog and I thought I was losing it," Arbogast said. "He started licking me on my face and I held on to him and it felt so warm. I didn't want to let go and I yelled out and Sharon Ward, bless her heart, and some others came up. I was very, very thankful they were there."
"(He was) crying, laughing, giddy," Ward said. "He could hardly believe - 'oh my god, I've been found.'"
Arbogast was found just in time. Hypothermia had him on the brink and his leg was swollen twice its normal size. But the rescue team saved him and now he is thankful.
"Now I know what it feels like to be hopeless and scared and to hope to God that there are people out there that will spend their time and their efforts and their money just to look for you," he said.
 "It's always so rewarding," said Ward. "We train and we train and we train, and to actually find somebody alive and be able to bring them back to health is the most rewarding thing you can imagine."
Ward specializes in tracking and has this advice:
- Stay still, especially if you are near a vehicle or some shelter.
- Leave some sign - like big arrows made out of sticks, or use something to spell out HELP.
- Take a whistle with you. The universal call for help is three quick blows.
- Before you head out, step on a piece of foil from heal to toe so trackers have an impression of your shoe print.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 8, 2006
Dedicated search crews save lost lives
By Grant McOmie
and KATU.com Web Staff
GIFFORD PINCHOT NATIONAL FOREST - It is a story most people in the Northwest are used to hearing on the evening news.
A hiker, camper, skier, scout or hunter heads into the vast wilderness of the Northwest, and is eventually reported overdue and missing by family or co-workers.
Search teams fan out, and with some luck, the missing person is found, cold and hungry, but grateful to be alive.
It is easy to get lost in the vast uninhabited and mountainous spaces of Oregon, Washington and other western states, and many people reported as missing do not return to happy families.
But the ones that are found and live to tell the tale usually heap praise and thanks upon those that find them.
Sharon Ward and her search dog Kunga are just one team of volunteers that head into the woods to track down people who take one too many wrong turns.
They have dedicated hundreds of hours of training time to hone the skills needed to quickly find people stranded in the wilderness, and it is not an easy task.
Ward must pack up to 50 pounds of gear to make sure she does not also get stranded in rough country. She has to take care of herself, and her dog as well.
She packs rope, food, water, a compass, and myriad other items proven from experience to be useful in the field.
Kunga, a stout Rottweiler who lives to find lost people, wears a bright red rescue vest so when he finds someone, they know they are found.
He wears a small bell that dings as he navigates snags, snow and deep forest. Ward keeps a bell ringing with her as well; it is their close-range communication system.
But how do you train a dog to find a lost person outside of an emergency situation?
There's only one way: send someone out to get lost.
KATU outdoor reporter Grant McOmie joined Ward and fellow searcher Karen Bagnall as they prepared to exercise their search dogs and skills once again.
Grant's task: head into the woods and get off the beaten path- way off if possible.
Mission accomplished. McOmie headed into the woods an hour ahead of the teams armed only with a cell phone and GPS unit.
Soon enough, he was completely turned around in a landscape covered in snow and crowded with vision-obscuring trees.
Back at the trailhead, Ward and Bagnall took note of McOmie's shoe sole pattern on a search note card and pointed their dogs Kunga and Brie in the direction McOmie was assumed to be headed according to his shoe prints.
Out in the woods, McOmie's journey off the trail shows what many people lost in the woods discover only too late: cell phones can't get a signal, and the thick forest canopy renders GPS units useless.
Rain is falling, it is cold, and getting colder. McOmie does the smart thing: he picks a spot near a tree, sits down and stops trying to find his way out of the maze of trees.
Staying in one place is the one action many people don't take that ends up costing them their lives, usually from exhaustion or exposure, or both.
Searchers say that if you keep moving, you make yourself very hard to find. The say anyone who gets lost should pick a spot, find or build some shelter and wait for help to arrive.
And soon enough, despite McOmie's best efforts to get really lost, Kunga comes bounding through the forest, bell dinging. He stays with McOmie until Ward arrives, and they all walk out of the damp woods.
Reviewing the exercise, Ward and Bagnall say that people heading into the woods can do simple things that make them easy to find if they get lost.
First off, let others know where you are going by leaving a note with your intended location, and when you are planning to return.
And if you do get lost, remember to stay in one place so searchers can find you more quickly.
Ward says staying put is counter-intuitive since most people believe they can find their way out of woods, but she stresses that staying in one place ups your chances of survival considerably.
To contact search and rescue expert Sharon Ward, you can call her at (503) 236-8256 or send her an e-mail (sward@1srg.org).
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