BUFFALO NATIONAL RIVER NEWS RELEASE

Release date: immediate
Date: October 11, 2009

Lost Newton County Hunters Found in Multi Agency Search Effort

Two young Compton-area hunters, ages 15 and 16, were dropped off for a day hunt at 6 am on Saturday, October 10 and turned up the following day at 9:21am after a search involving numerous agencies and volunteers.

The pair was dropped off at the Highway 43 and Cecil Cove Road near Compton in the morning. Relatives received a text message at noon asking to be picked up, but the pair failed to appear. A brief cell phone call was received by Bonne County 911 at 2:30 pm saying that they were lost at which point contact ended. It was ascertained that the pair was not prepared for an overnight in the woods.

A unified incident command post (ICP) was established at the Compton
Volunteer Fire Department on Highway 43 with incident command coordinated by Pete DeChant of Jasper Police and Buffalo National River Park Ranger Melissa Lamb. Interviews were taken from about a dozen family members and eight search teams consisting of 1 to 2 individuals deployed in an initial search pattern around the drop off point. With the onset of darkness, stations around the search area were established with bonfires, flashing lights, and periodic sounding of sirens in an attempt to attract the attention of the lost young men.

Early on Sunday, incident command was transferred to Kevin Thomas (Newton County Sherriff Department) and Jeff West (National Park Service). A much larger search force augmenting the agency teams with a large number of local volunteers met at the ICP where they were organized into multiagency groups and given their search orders for the day. Just as these groups began to deploy, a radio call was received stating that the lost party had been located by a search team member stationed near Chestnut Cabin in the Fitton Cave area, approximately 2.5 miles from their drop off point.

The pair, realizing they were going to be spending the night in the forest, found a ruined cabin where they built a fire and spent the night, only a quarter mile away from a stationary search party. With dawn, the young men continued their trek, encountering the search party and ending the operation. They were transported by National Park Service to the ICP where they were reunited with anxious relatives and debriefed by the incident command team.

That the search ended quickly and successfully is due in large part to the rapid multiagency mobilization and coordinated organization of staff which placed searchers in the right places of a logistically complicated
landscape of steep hills and forest cover.

A total of 73 individuals participated in this effort from the following
agencies: Newton County Sherriff’s Office, Bergman Volunteer Fire
Department, Capps-Batavia Volunteer Fire Department, Compton Volunteer Fire Department, Cottonwood Volunteer Fire Department, Hilltop Volunteer Fire Department, Krooked Kreek Volunteer Fire Department, Lead Hill Volunteer Fire Department, Omaha Volunteer Fire Department, Boone County Search and Rescue, Newton County Search and Rescue, North Arkansas Regional Medical Center, National Park Service Search and Rescue, family members and private
citizens. Dispatch centers at Boone County, Newton County, and National Park Service assisted in the coordination of response efforts.