The James and Kati Kim Family Search discussion now spans ten pages of over 10,000 comments. Click HERE for the back story, pictures, reports, and previous pages.
Governor Kulongoski’s Executive Order establishing SAR Task Force
The discussion continues below in the comments section.
Very bad news on the Zhou case. Her car has been found and there is a body in the trunk. No ID yet on the body but it’s probably May Zhou.
More Car: Silver 4 door 2006 Corolla Lic# 5VFG430
Student classified as “At Risk”
Police are asking the public’s help in looking for Zhou and her car. Zhou is described as an Asian woman, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing about 120 pounds. She has brown eyes, black hair and a medium complexion. Her roommate recalled only that she’d been wearing blue jeans when she left the apartment Saturday morning.
Anyone with information about Zhou can call Stanford University police at (650) 723-9633, or after hours at (650) 329-2413.
Wow, I sure hope the rumors about a Google Kiosk project are true. I like Google and I like Kiosks. Here in Oregon I was involved in computer kiosks for over ten years. Back in 1990 I managed one of the USA’s earliest multimedia projects using IBM Infowindow Touch monitors, computers, and laserdisc players. That was a US Forest Service partnership with my former employer the Southern Oregon Visitors Association, and we had 30 units in tourism places all over Southern Oregon.
This project led to a new project I designed and deployed as part of a SOVA, State, and National Scenic Byways partnership that put internet connected units in about 15 places. The internet solved many of the problems with the early kiosk project such as real time information availability, though it brought a host of new problems with rural connectivity issues and eventually a lack of enthusiasm for a complicated, grant driven project.
Could Google bring the necessary ingredients to make Kiosks commercially viable? I think they could by deploying broadly and with enough of an advertising footprint to interest national players who would appreciate being both in the programs and on the sides of the cabinets.
Good luck Google, I’ll always root for touch computer kiosks!
Related link – HUGE touchscreen with mapping demo – fantastic!
Blogging the Kim Family Search story has led to a number of great comments and articles about survival kits and wilderness survival tips. Feel free to leave more in the comments section – just post the URL and it will link up automatically.
Wilderness Survival Tips Website
Field and Stream Pocket Survival Kit: This article shows how to build a very inexpensive but fairly complete and light survival kit.
Survival tips from the TV Series “Survivorman”
Google Search for “Wilderness Survival”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10839538/
Supplies list for long road trips:
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?p=24583
James Kim Search Discussion – Click here | Mount Hood Climbers – Click here
David Boone, missing hiker in California
A family organized search is today, Friday December 15. Details in comments section.
Here’s a blog post from a searcher
Official search was called off after one week. Authorities seem to feel he could not have survived this long.
Based on this and the few other posts I’ve done so far about missing people I think there is a lot more volunteer potential than most normal search and rescue operation even try to coordinate. That’s what we are up to with the DangerData.com blog which is coming soon.
Another discussion is over at City-Data.com (free login required).
Search for “Foothill Ranch” to find that thread – not much there as of Friday Dec 15.
David Boone appears to have become lost during a walk in the “Whiting Ranch” area of Foothill Ranch, CA where he hikes almost every day.
The comments section has a lot more about this story.
James Kim is not alive. My sincere condolences go out to his wife and children. I know their safety was his top concern and he’d be so glad to know they made it out of the wilderness safely. Based on the best info I have today from a TV interview with the local pilot who found Kati and the kids it was James’ footprints down the road that he left on Saturday that initially alerted the pilot to the approximate location of the car. In my book, that was a heroic walk.I know the condolences, thoughts, and prayers of people all over the world are going out to the family of James Kim.
A lot of people are asking me a lot of questions here in the comments section and I’ll try to answer them when I know more. I’ve only had limited contact with some searchers and Scott, who worked very hard on a very noble effort to help coordinate information and many volunteers who were involved in the “unofficial” search. He was a close friend of the Kim’s and I think this must be a very difficult time for everybody closely involved with them. We should all hope to have such sincere and hard working friends, family, and rescue workers in the event of our own personal misfortune.
Oregonlive has a detailed account of the confusion surrounding the search effort.
KGW and Oregon Live have more coverage of the Kim Family story which has now captivated many people all over the world. However as local info comes in I’m alarmed by how it appears some big news places are misreporting important facts. Key story items to clarify 1) James Kim was dead when he was found. MSNBC initially suggested he was left overnight in the woods because searchers could not reach him. This is almost certainly false. 2) It remains unclear exactly when James died. Coroner suggests it was about two days which would have been Sunday night or Monday morning and probably before the ground search began. 3) The pilot that found Kati and Kids was a local resident who owned his own chopper and was not associated with the search directly. He stated on TV that he was very familiar with the area and felt for “the kids”.
Here is a link to a good series of images from another site showing the Rogue River area near Black Bar Lodge where the Kims were finally found but I understand ONLY FIRST IMAGE has correct car location. The initial reports of car location were wrong.
Another image showing the location and James’ walk – thanks Greg.
(I’ve removed an image I had here which did not have correct car location. For many days the correct location of the car and therefore the length of the walk by James Kim was reported incorrectly.)
The comments section has a lot more about this story. A LOT more!
I’m reviewing news items now. James Kim is still missing and I understand they think he’s still in the Big Windy Creek Drainage area near Horseshoe Bend / Black Bar of the Rogue River in the Rogue River Wilderness area west of Galice, Oregon.
Reports here at KGW Northwest news and here at Medford Mail Tribune say searchers found a pair of James’ pants today and continue to track him, thinking he’s probably within 5 miles of where he left the car and family on Saturday morning to find help.
I’m confused at why searchers think he did not make it farther than five miles. Logically if he got to the Rogue River he might have continued along the south bank, knowing that the coast was 2-3 days of (difficult) hiking downriver and would have kept as fast a pace as possible to stay warm. He told Kati he’d return to the car but may have changed that plan realizing that if he’d be maximizing the chance of finding them by trying to hike out of the woods. Riskier for him but giving two chances to be found rather than just one.
There’s a trail on the north bank of the River but not the south bank, and hopefully he would not have tried to cross or run the river using a makeshift raft since there are several dangerous rapids downriver from here.
If James has made it farther than they think, and did stay on the So bank of the River to navigate, he’d probably see the Paradise Lodge which is down near Blossom Bar Rapids on the other side of the River but clearly visible from the south bank. A few miles (I think) down from there on the south bank is Half Moon Bar lodge. With no word yet I’m calling these lodges now to make sure they are fully aware of the situation.
With Kati Kim and Children safe at a Grants Pass hospital the search has intensified for James Kim who is likely located in the Windy Creek Drainage south of the Rogue River in Southern Oregon. He left the Kim Family car on Saturday – some reports say he was wearing snowshoes – at 7:45am seeking help and was to return that day, but did not return. It’s reported that he was warmly dressed and had a lighter. Trackers followed his steps two miles from the car where he headed into the Windy Creek Drainage, a large area south of the Rogue River’s “Horseshoe Bend”. These areas up around the Rogue generally make for slow hiking so we can hope that James will be able to be tracked more easily.
The temperatures up there have been about 20s at night and 40’s in the daytime I think, though the news reported last night that the temps vary with elevation and actually it would be warmer up on the ridges in that area than in the valleys.
Tracking dogs and a National Guard heat seeking helicopter should be on the scene by now.
From the family website this morning:
12/5/06 – 7:30am – We’re up and hoping for good news, anxiously awaiting the success of the search and rescue team. I was able to speak with Kati briefly last night and she is in good spirits, worried and waiting, but joking with me in only the way that Kati can. The girls are in great shape. The Kim and Fleming’s primary concern now is to reunite the family. Kati’s mother, father and brother should be travelling to Oregon today to be with the family. I spoke off camera with one of the interviewers yesterday and we talked about how easy it is sometimes to be cynical in life, but how something like this really shows the true heart of people everywhere. There were so many times these few days where emails from people out there have had us crying and tearing up because of the sheer amount of love expressed – in many cases for a family they don’t even know. It has really kept us going and *IS* keeping us going. Thank you again for all of the support and to all of the people up in Oregon finding James right now.
12/4/06 – 11:30pm – Photos from our volunteer Becky Worley earlier today. Search Helicopter – Search and Rescue preparing for night searching.
GREAT NEWS from the Kim Family website:
12/4/06 – 3:30pm – We are ecstatic here, but still very concerned for James Kim – *please* do not stop praying for and hoping for James. We are very confident that the searchers will find James! Please keep the good thoughts coming! -scott
12/4/06 – 3:15pm – Kati Kim and her two girls have been found, they are being helicoptered out to a hospital. James Kim went out on foot two days ago and the Search and Rescue team are now tracking him and hope to find him soon.
This posted at family site, still not at Oregon Police Department official site but appears to be a legitimate update from the Police.
News Release from: Oregon State Police
KIM FAMILY UPDATE #5: MOTHER AND CHILDREN LOCATED; FATHER STILL MISSING
Posted: December 4th, 2006 3:14 PM
On December 4, 2006 at approximately 1:45 p.m., Search & Rescue
officials were notified that a vehicle and a female waving an umbrella were
spotted by a helicopter search crew near the Rogue River in the area of
Bear Camp Viewpoint off Bear Camp Road. This location is near the Curry
/ Josephine County line in Josephine County.
The helicopter was able to land and verified that the mother and two
children were alive. The father reportedly was not with the vehicle.
Additional search crews and resources are being diverted to the area to
help try and locate the father.
The condition of the mother and children is not available but reports
are encouraging. They were flown to a separate location from where they
will be transported to a local hospital to be evaluated for treatment.
No further details are being released at this time.
A second media briefing will tentatively be held at 5:00 p.m. in Merlin
at the Josephine County Search & Rescue Headquarters.
Joe Duck 
