After big push, search for missing Prineville man scaled back
After a major day-long multi-agency search effort failed to bear fruit, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday it’s scaling back the search for a Prineville man missing for over a week.
Lester Hyder, 69, last was seen in the Crescent area on Tuesday, Dec. 13, when he and his brother were heading north on Highway 97 in separate pickup trucks. His truck was found by searchers last Saturday near Cabin Butte, off China Hat Road south of Bend.
Here’s the update from Sgt. Nathan Garibay, the agency’s emergency services manager:
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue continued the search for Lester Hyder Wednesday, December 21st. We were assisted by search and rescue teams from Lane County Sheriff’s Office, Linn County Sheriff’s Office, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, Crook County Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office (Camp Sherman Hasty Team), and Pacific Northwest SAR.
Over 60 searchers were deployed in the field on Wednesday and searched throughout the day. Mr. Hyder was not located.
Since the inception of this search, we have deployed a variety of search resources for a total of over 1,200 searcher hours. The initial search area included much of the State of Oregon until narrowed down by the location of Mr. Hyder’s vehicle on Saturday, December 17th. Resources included:
* Aircraft (AirLink Helicopter, Oregon National Guard Blackhawk, and Oregon State Police fixed-wing)
* 4×4 Vehicles
* ATVs
* Ground Searchers
* Canine Teams
* Trackers
* Horse Teams
* United State Forest Service Law Enforcement
* Oregon State Police Troopers
* Overhead personnel (Incident Management Team)
After consultation with the Hyder family, the Sheriff’s Office is scaling back search efforts. This case remains an open missing person investigation and future searches will occur as ground and weather conditions warrant. Our thoughts are with Mr. Hyder’s family through this very difficult time.
The Sheriff’s Office asks anyone who has information regarding this case to contact us through non-emergency dispatch at 541-693-6911 .
