L.A. man still missing
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January 05, 1980 |
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By Craig Beasley
Due to lack of snow and an unresolved search, January's usual "winter shakedown" training was converted to a mission. Greg Tanner, whose car had been found in the Idyllwild Visitor's Center parking lot on December 23, 1979 was still missing. With the cooperation of the Sheriff's Office, RMRU's January training became a continuance of the pre-Christmas search for the U.C. Berkeley student. An extensive search (by foot and air) in the vicinity of the Visitor's Center and the Deer Springs trail area on December 23 and December 24 had turned no clues of the missing person's whereabouts. Thus, the plan of action for the weekend was to split RMRU members into four teams, each with specific assignments.
Bernie McIlvoy, Tom Aldrich and Tony Loro made up one team. This team proceeded from Suicide Rock cross-country to Strawberry Cienega trail, then worked their way to the saddle between Marion and Jean peaks and then descended to Little Round Valley, the final meeting place of the four teams. Dave Ezell and Brian Hixson made up the team assigned to search the Seven Pines trail area. Pete Carlson and Chris Noon covered the Marion Mt. trail area while Ed Hill, Jim Garvey and myself searched from Suicide Rock to Deer Springs trail and on to Little Round Valley. All groups arrived at Little Round Valley right at dark, and despite efforts, no sign of Greg Tanner was found.
Sunday morning, six of us hiked up to San Jacinto peak, and once again turned no sign of the missing person. We descended back to camp and proceeded back to our respective cars (and motorcycles). Several members met at Denny's in Hemet to discuss what had been accomplished. Accomplished, however, is not the most appropriate word, for at the time of this writing, Greg Tanner was still missing.
A special note must be added to make the write-up of January training complete. A special thanks to Walt and Kevin Walker, Rick Pohlers, and Al Andrews for spending the weekend working on the vans so that No. 1 van can be operational in the near future.