Boulder – A military investigator trying to track down missing Marine Lance Hering said Hering has recently posted messages on a website saying he is at his parents’ Boulder home, according to a police document.
If true, the postings represent the first good indication of Hering’s whereabouts since he disappeared nearly a year ago after he and a friend allegedly staged a phony hiking accident in Eldorado Canyon State Park. However, when Boulder police searched Lloyd and Elynne Hering’s south Boulder home on Tuesday, they did not find Lance or any recent sign of him, Boulder police spokeswoman Julie Brooks said.
Police went to the house Tuesday afternoon after receiving a call from the Marine investigator, who is assigned to Hering’s military desertion case. The investigator said recent postings purportedly from Hering on Hering’s MySpace page indicated Hering had been staying at the house.
Reached Wednesday evening, the investigator said he is not authorized to discuss the case publicly but said Hering’s MySpace page had also recently been set to private.
On Tuesday, Elynne Hering told officers that Lance was not at the house and that she had not seen him since August, according to a police report. Officers said Elynne Hering was initially reluctant to let them search the house, but she relented after speaking with her attorney, according to the report.
Hering, 22, disappeared on Aug. 30. His friend, Steve Powers, initially told police that he and Hering were hiking in Eldorado Canyon State Park when Hering fell and hurt his head and Powers went to get help. The report spurred the largest search effort in Boulder County Sheriff’s office history, but Powers later confessed to making the story up so that Hering wouldn’t have to return to his Marine unit and likely go back to Iraq. Surveillance video that surfaced a few days later and showed what appeared to be Hering boarding a bus out of town in Denver seemed to confirm the hoax.
But since then, sheriff’s investigators have pursued only dead-end leads and apocryphal tips. Hering’s parents have created an online bulletin board where they and others have posted supportive messages for Hering and have pleaded with him to call home.
Sheriff’s Commander Phil West said Wednesday that sheriff’s investigators have not talked with the Marine investigator about the MySpace postings.
“It’s pretty much at a standstill,” West said of the investigation. “There haven’t been any new leads, and frankly it hasn’t been a real priority. We’re just waiting for him to turn up.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
