Hiker missing 6 months

October 12, 2001
Whitewater Hatchery
2001-018

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By Glenn Henderson

The team was called out at 10:30 AM on October 12, 2001. We were to search for Dino Evans – reported missing since March 2001. The subject was dropped off by his mother on March 28 and not seen since. On Friday October 12, a passing hiker found an apparenty deserted campsite in a remote area of Whitewater canyon. The hiker found identification for Dino Evans. Dino often went hiking for weeks or months at a time before contacting his relatives so when he didn't check in after the week that he said he would be gone, no one thought much of it. On July 20, Dino's father did report his son missing to the Sheriff's department. The problem was that there were hundreds of square miles to search and where to beg%EDn? Many fliers were posted throughout the area but no ground search was started as no one knew where to start.

With the report of the hiker the team was called out. At 2:00PM two teams were sent into the field, Bill Blaschko and Gene Baune were team one and Mike Wimbrow and Lew Kingman were team two. They were driven in to within 2 to 3 miles of the campsite as air support was not available. Team one found the campsite and searched the area but found no sign of Dino. All teams returned to basecamp at 8:00PM. Team members reponding on Friday were Gene Baune, Bill Blaschko, Mike Wimbrow, Lew Kingman, Ray Hussey, Jim Fairchild, Phil Thompson, and Steve Bryant.

On Saturday the search was resumed with team members Ray Hussey, Jim Fairchild, Brad Scott, Steve Bryant, Glenn Henderson, Terry Greenstein and Michael George. Air support was provided by San Bernadino Sheriff air unit, Rescue 06.Team 1 and 2, Jim Fairchild, Brad Scott, Glenn Henderson, and Steve Bryant were flown into the campsite. Terry Greenstein was flown to Red Dome for radio relay .After a hasty search of the area, Jim stayed at the campsite while Steve, Brad, and I each chose a different canyon to search. We had only been gone for about 20 minutes when Jim radioed that he had found a skull. We all returned to the campsite and sure enough, about 25 ft. from the camp was a skull. We had all walked past it more than once as it was so weathered that it looked just like one of the many rocks around it. Thanks to Jim's keen observation and researching the area the search was over. We called our findings to base through the relay and waited for the coroner to come and secure the area. All team members and Sheriff personnel were back at basecamp at 5:00 PM.