Merlin, Ore. – Searchers scouring a rugged canyon Tuesday found a pair of pants matching the description of those worn by a missing man who struck out for help after his family’s car got stuck in the snow.
A helicopter with heat-sensing equipment joined other helicopters, snowmobiles and foot patrols Tuesday in the hunt for 35-year-old James Kim of San Francisco. His wife and two daughters were found Monday after being lost for more than a week.
Searchers found the pants Tuesday afternoon.
“It could be a sign he’s trying to indicate the path he was going,” Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Police.
Officials said it appeared Kim was within 5 miles of the car he’d left Saturday morning wearing only tennis shoes, pants, a sweater and a jacket. Trackers had followed his footprints until dark Monday night.
Searchers said he had headed downhill and apparently walked out of an area covered with snow toward the Rogue River. Search and rescue teams checked the river with rafts Tuesday.
Kim – whose family told rescuers he had some outdoor experience and had eaten berries while stranded, not knowing if they were poisonous – took two lighters with him when he left the car, Anderson said. “Maybe he got a fire going,” he said at a news conference.
Overnight temperatures have been in the mid 20s to mid 30s.
A helicopter crew spotted his wife, Kati Kim, 30, waving an umbrella Monday afternoon. She and her daughters Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months, were flown to a hospital in Grants Pass.
They were in very good condition Tuesday and Sabine was expected to be released from the hospital, said Linda Rankin, vice president for patient care at Three Rivers Community Hospital.
Kati Kim might lose a toe, her father, Dr. Phil Fleming, told The Associated Press on Tuesday as he and his wife, Sandy, awaited a flight to Oregon from Albuquerque, N.M. He said his daughter breast-fed the children to keep them nourished during the ordeal and “the children are doing extraordinarily well.”
“You think about a soldier being killed or an individual in a car accident, and you often time wonder how difficult that is,” said Fleming, of Gallup, N.M. “But take a whole family and subject two kids to it – it’s just unbearable.”
The family said James Kim left the car around 7:45 a.m. Saturday and walked back the way they had come, saying he would return by 1 p.m. if he found no help.
Before he left, the four huddled together for warmth and ran the car at night until they ran out of gas. Officials said some of the tires were burned as signal fires in a vain attempt to attract attention.
“They did a good job. They are in remarkable shape for spending nine days out in the wilderness in this type weather conditions,” Anderson said.
Searchers said the key to their discovery was a “ping” signal from the Kims’ cell phone, even though the remote region is generally out of cell phone range.
It’s unclear if the ping was an intentional measure taken by James, a senior editor who handles technology news at CNET Networks Inc.
The family saw friends in Portland on Nov. 25 and headed toward home after a Thanksgiving trip to the Pacific Northwest. They were last spotted at a restaurant that day, and never arrived at a lodge where they had reservations.
State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings said Kati Kim told a detective the family intended to take Oregon 42, the usual route from Interstate 5 to the south Oregon coast, but they missed the turnoff, found Bear Camp Road on the map and decided to take it instead of turning back. Their car was found 15 miles from Bear Camp Road.
The complicated network of roads in the area is not plowed in winter.
James Kim covers digital audio and co-hosts a weekly video podcast for the Crave gadgets blog on CNET. The couple also own two boutiques in San Francisco.
“We are extremely relieved that they have found Kati and the kids,” said Sarah Cain, a CNET spokeswoman. “We are cautiously optimistic and hopeful that it will bring more good news about James and his family.”
Associated Press Writer Matt Mygatt in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this story.
