Deschutes County SAR has busy Saturday
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue had quite a busy Saturday, responding to or standing by on several lost or stranded people, helped by other agencies and private citizens, as well as a call-out to southern Oregon to help look for a missing hunter.
Around 10 a.m. Saturday, a woman told 911 dispatchers her 3-year-old had disappeared from a home on Northeast Rosemary Drive in Bend, said Deputy Russell Stanage, assistant SAR operations manager. The child was found by Bend police in the home’s garage about 25 minutes later.
Around 2:10 p.m., another call was received regarding another 3-year-old who had wandered from a home in the Deschutes River Woods area south of Bend. That child was found shortly before 3 p.m. by an Oregon State Police trooper, walking near the railroad tracks about a half-mile south of the home, Stanage said.
Just a few minutes earlier, dispatchers got a call about a man in the water about 200 yards from shore at Crane Prairie Reservoir, Stanage said.
They soon learned the man had shot a goose and tried to retrieve it by swimming after it. He was clinging to a tree in the water and was unable to swim back to shore.
Citizens on scene, three deputies and a Forest Service law enforcement officer rescued the man around 3:30 p.m. and took him to La Pine Fire medics standing by at the Rock Creek Campground boat ramp. The medics then took the man to St. Charles Bend for treatment of hypothermia, the deputy said.
Around 3:50 p.m., dispatchers got a call about an 81-year-old man who had wandered from a home east of Bend and been missing for about 1 1/12 hours, Stanage said. Deputies responded and found the man shortly after 4 p.m., disoriented and confused, walking down a road in the area.
Amid all that, nine Deschutes County SAR members and a coordinator responded to a rural, rugged area of Douglas County to help search for a lost 20-year-old deer hunter. Stanage said the Deschutes County SAR members spent much of Saturday in rough terrain and inclement weather, helping Douglas County SAR in their search.
A Douglas County dispatcher said Sunday night the hunter lost in the Tiller area had yet to be found and the search was over for the night, to resume Monday.
Stanage thanked Deschutes County citizens for their help in Saturday’s search and rescue efforts. He offered a special thanks to Steven Jones of Bend and Crane Prairie Resort owner Patrick Schatz for their quick assistance and use of their personal boats, critical in the rescue of the hunter stranded in the water.
