The search for a missing bow hunter in central Washington has been temporarily called off because of worsening weather. This follows a rare call out for volunteer searchers to help in the effort.
Thomas Steig of North Bend, Washington, set out Friday to go hunting in rural Grant County. His wife reported him missing on Saturday. Missing hunters are not uncommon. But this case is different. The Grant County Sheriff’s office did something police agencies rarely do -- a general call out to the public to help with the search.
“We haven’t put out a call for volunteers in recent years,” sheriff’s spokesman Kyle Foreman said. He added that this search in a vast and remote area demanded extra boots on the ground.
“We felt we had a time constraint with the bad weather coming in that we wanted to get as many as volunteers as possible,” Forman said.
About 100 people showed up to help. The volunteers were registered as temporary emergency workers so they could be covered by state liability insurance.
Searchers have been combing the sagebrush landscape on horseback, ATV and foot. A helicopter also joined the search. If the weather improves, a military plane may do a flyover using infrared cameras.
Copyright 2015 Northwest News Network
