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Searchers Look for Signs of Missing Hunter
December 11, 2004
AP
BEAVER, Ore. - Kristen Childress was looking forward to celebrating her sixth wedding anniversary on Saturday. Instead, she spent the day in mountainous terrain looking for her husband, who vanished while elk hunting nearly two months ago.
At one time, some 300 searchers - including sheriff's deputies from seven Oregon counties - combed the steep gullies, old growth timber forests and dense undergrowth of northwest Oregon for signs of Jeromy Childress, who disappeared Oct. 17.
On Saturday, some 80 volunteers tried once more to find signs of Childress. The volunteers were mostly hunters themselves, some of whom know what it's like to be lost in the rugged area.
Kristen Childress said her husband, a 31-year-old industrial bridge painter, and two others lost track of camp looking for firewood on Oct. 16 and spent the night in their truck. The next afternoon, Childress headed into the woods on a hunch he could find the camp himself.
He had a rifle, a pocketknife and half a pack of Marlboros.
Kristen Childress said her husband probably kept moving on that foggy, rainy afternoon, even after dark, to stay warm. Deputies who searched the area, about 50 miles west of Portland, called it some of the roughest territory in the Northwest.
"If he hunkered down behind a log, he might have lasted a couple of days," said Tillamook County Sheriff's Deputy Don Taylor. "If he fell and had a compound fracture or was bleeding badly, he died that night."
For days after he disappeared, Childress' wife stayed in the mountains with the search teams, going home only occasionally to see her children. She said with bad weather and shorter days, the search Saturday probably would be the last until spring.
"I can hold on to that little bit of hope a little bit longer," she said. "But I know what reality is."
People who knew Jeromy Childress said he would not have run away. His wife dismissed the thought immediately.
"Everybody we talked to said he loved his wife and kid. He loved his job," Taylor said.
Oregon will not issue a death certificate for a missing person, so she cannot get insurance benefits, or sell her husband's truck or boat to help with expenses. At some point, she said, she will have to go before a judge and have him declared deceased. She said she doesn't know when she'll be ready to do that.
In the meantime, Kristen Childress has been trying to explain her husband's disappearance to the couple's 3-year-old daughter, Kelsy. They also have an 8-month-old son.
"I tell her he is in her heart and in the stars," she said. "She makes wishes to the stars and says, 'I love you.'"
December 11, 2004
AP
BEAVER, Ore. - Kristen Childress was looking forward to celebrating her sixth wedding anniversary on Saturday. Instead, she spent the day in mountainous terrain looking for her husband, who vanished while elk hunting nearly two months ago.
At one time, some 300 searchers - including sheriff's deputies from seven Oregon counties - combed the steep gullies, old growth timber forests and dense undergrowth of northwest Oregon for signs of Jeromy Childress, who disappeared Oct. 17.
On Saturday, some 80 volunteers tried once more to find signs of Childress. The volunteers were mostly hunters themselves, some of whom know what it's like to be lost in the rugged area.
Kristen Childress said her husband, a 31-year-old industrial bridge painter, and two others lost track of camp looking for firewood on Oct. 16 and spent the night in their truck. The next afternoon, Childress headed into the woods on a hunch he could find the camp himself.
He had a rifle, a pocketknife and half a pack of Marlboros.
Kristen Childress said her husband probably kept moving on that foggy, rainy afternoon, even after dark, to stay warm. Deputies who searched the area, about 50 miles west of Portland, called it some of the roughest territory in the Northwest.
"If he hunkered down behind a log, he might have lasted a couple of days," said Tillamook County Sheriff's Deputy Don Taylor. "If he fell and had a compound fracture or was bleeding badly, he died that night."
For days after he disappeared, Childress' wife stayed in the mountains with the search teams, going home only occasionally to see her children. She said with bad weather and shorter days, the search Saturday probably would be the last until spring.
"I can hold on to that little bit of hope a little bit longer," she said. "But I know what reality is."
People who knew Jeromy Childress said he would not have run away. His wife dismissed the thought immediately.
"Everybody we talked to said he loved his wife and kid. He loved his job," Taylor said.
Oregon will not issue a death certificate for a missing person, so she cannot get insurance benefits, or sell her husband's truck or boat to help with expenses. At some point, she said, she will have to go before a judge and have him declared deceased. She said she doesn't know when she'll be ready to do that.
In the meantime, Kristen Childress has been trying to explain her husband's disappearance to the couple's 3-year-old daughter, Kelsy. They also have an 8-month-old son.
"I tell her he is in her heart and in the stars," she said. "She makes wishes to the stars and says, 'I love you.'"
