Three men in camo missing

January 18, 1985 Coyote Canyon, near Anza 1985-004

By Bruce Gahagan

In the early afternoon we were called out for a search. The team met at the end of the paved road near Anza where it becomes dirt and soon started down in to Coyote Canyon, which leads to the Anza Barrage State Park. We were called to look for three men missing for better than one day. The first members to arrive following Walt Walker in the No. 1 van were Glenn Henderson who had his 4-wheel drive Bronco, Bill Blaschko, and Kevin Walker and his jeep CJ-5. Walt assigned Bill to ride with Glenn and then they headed down the badly eroded dirt road towards Coyote. When Rick Pohlers arrived Rick and Kevin teamed up in his jeep. They were also assigned to go down to Coyote Canyon and assist as Glenn's vehicle was larger and more cumbersome, where Kevin's was more agile, and could get to places Glenn's could not. Mel Krug, Jim Fairchild and I arrived a little later and we were assigned to search the table land above the canyons. Kevin and Glenn's teams made it into the canyons after dark and started working up the different washes trying to cut prints. We did the same up high.

Just before midnight Mel and I located the trio walking across a field not far from base camp. These characters were all dressed in camo type clothing and had guns with them, they were a real sight. At any rate the canyon boys were called back, and apparently as we waited they had a good time 4-wheeling their way up the road. And at 3:00 in the morning we were all heading home.