Ochoco NF search underway for missing man, 83

(Update: Sunday search turns up no sign of Hughes; adding incident command photo)

Searchers from several counties continued to look without success Sunday on foot and horseback, using K-9 teams, planes and drones for an 83-year-old Portland-area man who walked away from a campsite in the Ochoco National Forest on Thursday and has not been seen since.

Peter Hughes, who goes by Paul, was reported missing to the Crook County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday night. They in turn notified the Wheeler County Sheriff’s Office around 9:30 p.m. and crews from both agencies headed to the area of the Cottonwood Campground where Hughes left his campsite and had not returned, Wheeler County Undersheriff Mitch Elliott said.

Two Wheeler County deputies and two Crook County Search and Rescue members searched the area at first in the dark late Thursday. They were joined Friday morning by other deputies, the Wheeler County SAR team and a K-9 team from Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, Elliott said. An AirLink helicopter crew and several community members joined the search of the campground area.

The search continued on Saturday, assisted by a Wheeler County Sheriff’s Office member on horseback, three Crook County Sheriff’s Office K-9 teams, Deschutes and Grant county SAR teams and three planes from the Grant County area.

Elliott said the grid search continued Sunday with more resources from outside the region, including two members of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office Posse.

“The search teams have reported difficult terrain, both flat and some extreme elevation changes, standing marshy areas (and) densely forested areas,” Elliott wrote.

Elliott told NewsChannel 21 Sunday evening, “We had lots of folks in the field today and nothing has come up.” He said Monday’s search will focus on aircraft fly-overs “and we hope we can pick up some sort of clue” as to Hughes’ location.