[at-l] Seabreeze 5/25 Update

[atinca at mindspring.com (Karen Koontz)]

Good morning everyone -
I apologize for being so late with Wednesday's update, but yesterday was a
HUGE day in terms of progress being made in the search for John and late in
the evening, events in California began to unfold with such speed that we
(Lynn Padgett and I) were on the phone well into the wee hours of the
morning (about 2:00 a.m.).

First of all, before I tell you the latest news, there is a request to be
made from the sheriff's department and also from those of us involved
directly with them:

Please, please, DO NOT call the sheriff's department.  They are involved in
an intense effort to locate John and calls distract them from their work and
only hinder the search.  We have one person, Lynn Padgett, who is in direct
contact with the Sgt. in charge - Lynn made terrific progress yesterday and
has developed a good and cooperative relationship with this person.  The
Sgt. knows John is important to a lot of people around the country and he
does not need any calls to convince him of that and quite frankly, he does
not have time to update folks individually about the search status. Please,
I know it's hard to wait, but as soon as we know something, the e-mails will
be going out. Thank you for your cooperation in this critical matter.

Now, here is the latest:
1.  Two teams of trained searchers (6 total) are going out THIS morning at
8:00 a.m.  (not Saturday - thanks to Lynn's tireless efforts and dogged
determination yesterday) to search for John.  They are going to be inserted
into the search area by helicopter because the area is so rugged and to give
the search and rescue personnel the maximum amount of search time.  They
will search the area extensively ALL day.

2. A plane looking specifically for John was sent out yesterday morning to
fly over the Fuller Ridge ice chutes, however they did not see anything.

3.  Late last evening, we were able to talk to a hiker who spent the night
of 5/2 camped with John on the PCT in the San Jacinto Mountains at Fobes
Saddle so we now know for SURE that John was on this trail.  This was a huge
development because it eliminated any other scenarios that were being
considered.

4.  Based on information this hiker was able to give us about hiking events
the following day (May 3) and reports from another hiker in the area, we
have been able to narrow the search area for the S&R operations this morning
to a fairly narrow search area.  Basically, we know approximately where John
is, we just haven't found him yet.  This is the biggest break in the search
for John that we've had so far.

5.  If the S&R group cannot locate John today, other volunteers are
gathering and will be searching for sure on Saturday and with this latest
info, they will probably have a search Friday as well.  Some of the hikers
who were instrumental in giving us this critical location info will be going
out themselves today and hiking to the area from the bottom to see if they
can assist.

Again, please be patient as we wait for the Search and Rescue reports from
today (and remember, California is 3 hours behind us) - you will know what I
know as soon as my fingers can type the e-mail.

Karen