Date: 2009-12-25
To: A long day's night
Miles today: 0.0

The page went out about 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon: ¢On alert for a possible search operation¢ -- missing 11 year old girl, last seen in her bedroom at 9:30 pm the previous evening. I¢ve been working so much since my ¢09 hike ended that I haven¢t been able to participate much in search operations. In fact, my last search was for a missing blind hiker on the AT last May. We haven¢t had that many call-outs, and most of those have been for older folks ¢ mostly Alzheimer¢s patients who had wondered off. But missing 11 year old girls have a rather higher priority. I began clearing my desk, and let my wife know I might be bailing on some of the Christmas activities with the kids. By 5 pm I was heading home through rush hour traffic when the page went out for a ¢Full Call Out¢. Additional information: they had a registered sex offender in custody and had charged him with kidnapping. The 11 year old girl was still missing. By 7:30 I was on the road, and by 11 pm I was at the church that was being used as ¢Base¢. I was sort of hoping they might need me at base, so that I could make use of the search management skills I¢ve been working on over the past couple of years. Local law enforcement, however, had that covered ¢ as far as they were concerned, so all they were looking for were Field Team Leaders ready, willing, and able to take a team of ¢emergent volunteers¢ out on search assignments. It was cold, and dark, and the thought of sitting in a heated command post had its attractions, but you do what they need you to do, and they needed me to be in the field. I located another member of the Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group, a newbie, but at least he¢d had some training and had the right gear. We then grabbed a team of five local volunteer fire-fighters. It¢s always best to find some local folks, preferably the ones dressed in camo and looking just a tad scruffy. They¢ll be the ones who know the neighborhood you¢re going to be wondering through. They¢ve been hunting and fishing the woods, fields and streams for miles around since they were knee high to a grasshopper, and can tell you which farmer owns which fields, and which ones don¢t particularly care for strangers trespassing on their property. They will also help you to stay found when the map you¢ve been given somehow doesn¢t quite line up with some of the newer realities ¢on the ground¢. It turned out to be a pretty good team. We were supposed to search an undeveloped wooded area on the north side of some railroad tracks, clearly shown on the map they provided. The seven of us piled into my Suburban, and set off along country roads toward the plot designated on the map. Fortunately, my fire guys (which actually included one female) knew the roads, so we made good time. Unfortunately, after turning onto a gravel road, we were unable to locate the railroad tracks that were supposed to delineate the southern boundary of our search area. It turned out, also, that the area was no longer totally undeveloped. What had once been part of a large farm had been subdivided into a bunch of wooded building lots, many of which now had homes on them. With large, barking dogs attached, as we discovered driving slowly along narrow gravel side roads just after mid-night. Within a few minutes, while we had stopped to try to get our bearings, a couple of four-wheelers roared up to where we were stopped. Some folks were still up, and were more than a little curious about strangers driving by that late at night. We got lucky, however, as they turned out to be the old man who had originally owned the farm, and his son-in-law, who owned another house nearby. We explained what we were up to, and they were quite familiar with the situation. They said they had heard about the missing girl, whose house was quite near by, and had spent much of the afternoon searching their property, on four-wheelers, hoping to find some trace of her. They said they had searched around ponds, and in barns, and in some abandoned houses and out-buildings, and my sense was that they had been quite serious in their efforts. I explained our search mission, and the first thing the farmer said was that the rail road tracks hadn¢t been there for, oh, probably 20 years. He then volunteered to join us, since he knew the property "pretty well" ¢ an obvious understatement, as he¢d lived there for more than sixty years. That turned out to be huge blessing over the next four and a half hours.The good news was that the terrain was essentially flat. This was ¢eastern shore¢ rather than mountain territory, so at least we weren¢t trying to stay upright on a 60 degree slope. They had also had relatively little snow, so we weren¢t having to posthole through four foot drifts like we still have around my house. The bad news was that this is swampy area, and the water was generally covered with a sheet of ice. Breaking through the ice was a piece of cake, and then the next question was: how deep was the water and mud? It wasn¢t fun, but the team was highly motivated to try to find the missing girl, so there were no complaints whatsoever. We did not, I¢m sorry to say, find her. We found what were possible clues, which I won¢t describe here, but after the third item, the Command Center told us to stand by and sent in a whole herd of law enforcement vehicles, several with dogs. As always, I had briefed my team on basic search tactics, and highlighted the importance of looking for clues, and they really came through. That¢s all a search team can do. It¢s a bit frustrating, but you just have to keep your mind on the fact that you are part of an overall effort, even if what you do doesn¢t happen to result directly in a ¢find¢. We wrapped up the search of our area about 4:30 am, thanked the farmer and his son-in-law for their help, and rode in silence ¢ except for the heater fan set on high ¢ back to Base. I debriefed with the local law enforcement representative, thanked my team for their efforts, and we all went our separate ways to find some sleep. I found a local motel, and pretty much ¢crashed and burned¢. I really hate to admit it, but having been up for more than 24 hours, I was actually starting to feel my age. And I don¢t mean the fictitious 18 years old, either. I woke up about noon, checked my pages and the local press coverage, and it seemed like the search was being reasonably well covered by volunteers. It¢s usually the first 24 hours of gearing up, and night ops, where the need is greatest. I decided to head back home. I also got some additional details about the case from the local T.V. station as I got dressed. Seems the person in custody was the boy friend of the missing little girl¢s aunt, who had custody of her and her two siblings. Some things, I will just never quite understand¢¦.I¢m home now, and it¢s Christmas Eve. I¢m here with my wife and three of my four kids. They are all safe and sound. I count my blessings. And my mind keeps coming back to the innocent, smiling face of this 11 year old girl who is still missing. She is out there, somewhere, on this silent Christmas Eve.